NEW YORK — Following the success of their online word and puzzle games “Spelling Bee”, “Connections”, “Strands” and “Pips”, the New York Times has released a Scrabble-esque two-player game called “Crossplay”, which they hope will allow players to get angry at one more thing per day, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

“It’s been so much fun to see how infuriated people get over the incredibly niche and esoteric categories we populate Connections with every day,” said New York Times reporter Katie Curran to the press, almost giggling with glee. “We just couldn’t help ourselves. I can’t wait to see how mad this one makes people…and here’s the kicker: you have to download a whole separate app in order to play it! Plus, inviting people to play a game with them in the first place is unnecessarily confusing and complicated. Oh, man, this is gonna be rich.” 

The effects seem to be working exactly as intended, according to new players. 

“Sometimes it’s like, ‘you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me with this shit’. Actually, most of the time,” veteran NYT Games player Steve Nash stated when asked for his thoughts on the matter. “I’ll play a word and suddenly my hand is two A’s, two E’s, an I and a Z. What the actual fuck am I supposed to do with that? Meanwhile, my opponent is getting the triple letter and triple word tiles like there’s no tomorrow. This thing needs serious nerfing.” 

Per reports, the folks at the NYT added a Dictionary feature to the game so you can’t even get angry at all the made-up words that don’t exist. 

“You’re telling me that QI is a valid word? And ETAS? I’d call bullshit, but the dictionary is right there, so no matter how obscure it is, you can’t even accuse the other player of making it up,” said NYU English professor Angela Harcourt in a public statement. “I teach this language for a living, and I’ve never even heard of half of these. God forbid you get hit with JO when the J is on a triple letter tile. I lose sleep over it.” 

At press time, an angry mob was seen forming under the New York Times’ Manhattan offices, while their journalists pointed down and laughed from the upper floors.