Andrew Webster for The Verge: Zach Gage’s Puzzmo gets acquired as the newspaper games space heats up

As part of the deal, Gage and Therox will continue to develop Puzzmo, which currently operates as a website, with a mobile app in the works. But Puzzmo will also begin rolling out to readers of more than 50 Hearst publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle and Popular Mechanics.

Puzzmo is awesome, and it's quite quickly worked its way into my daily routine. I personally prefer Flipart, the crossword, and Really Bad Chess, and I think they're all really well done. They get bonus points for making the UI scale nearly perfectly from desktop displays down to phones, so I can play any game equally well on whatever device I want. The site is free to play, but you can pay for access to more puzzles and history of all previous dailies. I liked it so much I paid for the lifetime membership, myself (no longer available, I believe).

I'll admit I was worried when I saw this headline, especially since I just paid for lifetime access, but it seems like for me nothing will change. Instead, Hearst publications will be able to embed branded versions of these games on their websites, and paid subscribers to those publications will be able to play Puzzmo games. Meanwhile, Puzzmo will carry on as a standalone service that anyone can just go to. Optimistically, I won't even notice a change, and this deal will provide reliable income to the creators, ensuring they can keep it going for the long haul. Here's hoping the optimistic read isn't the foolishly optimistic read.