Alexey Pajitnov programmed Tetris in the USSR, but it was only years later, after a long dispute, that he came into money – it has now been made into a film and you can stream the work for free if you own a PS4 or PS5.
What game is this about? Tetris, one of the classics, rose to worldwide fame in 1989 on the Nintendo Gameboy. To this day, in addition to imitators, there are also officially licensed successors for virtually every platform on the market.
For example, this modern adaptation of the timeless game principle:
A real gaming thriller that was made into a film
Who invented Tetris? Tetris is the work of Alexey Pajitnov, born in 1955 in what was then the Soviet Union. He now lives in the USA and it was only there that he achieved the wealth that had long eluded him. In the early 1980s he worked at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre. Today it would belong to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In 1984, he came up with the idea of turning the puzzle game Pentomino, which he knew from his childhood, into a computer game. The finished product spread quickly in the Soviet Union, but Pajitnov did not profit from it – and it would remain that way for a long time. Rumors about the game soon reached western companies. What followed was a real thriller that was in no way inferior to many a spy blockbuster.
Who owned the rights to exploit the game? It is difficult to answer this question, because before Tetris finally celebrated its triumph on the Gameboy, many, sometimes secret, talks followed in Moscow. At times, several competing parties negotiated with a Russian state-owned company just a few meters away, without knowing about each other. Ultimately, a deal was made, but Alexey Pajitnov came away empty-handed and emigrated to the USA.
And if you are interested in seeing this life story outlined here competently filmed according to the critics, you should take a look at Apple TV+. You can watch the film there – and even for free. You will need a PS4 or PS5 for this, however. Until September 22, 2024, Sony is offering a free trial subscription lasting several months in cooperation with the streaming service. Read more in the following article:
But how did Pajitnov become rich? In the USA, the Tetris inventor worked for Microsoft for several years and founded “The Tetris Company” together with Henk Rogers. In 1996, the original contracts expired and he was able to profit financially from his work as an inventor and with his new US citizenship. Even though he probably missed out on several million in the early days of the brand, he has now easily become very rich.
Rogers also negotiated the deal with Nintendo at the time – so he got help from the mastermind behind one of the most consequential deals in gaming history. Today, they jointly control the “Tetris” brand and everything related to it.
If you were to write a list of the most successful Nintendo games of all time from memory, you would certainly include names like Zelda, Mario, Metroid and even Pokémon. And collecting cards by hand is still a popular hobby today, but it may be entering a new era. We will present the reason for this in the following article: “Collecting Pokémon cards will never be the same again” – scans using medical technology show the contents of booster packs