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Tetris has been purchased (yes, purchased) 425 million times on mobile

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Compared to around 70 million boxes copies of the years.

GamesBeat: True. What have you been up to lately? Do you have any updates on Tetris and the kind of reach it’s found over the years?

Rogers: We have 425 million total paid mobile downloads. That’s all just on mobile. We had 35 million on the original Game Boy. Boxed products, I think altogether we sold something like 70 million.
GamesBeat: Do you still only sell it as a premium download, or have you made the leap to free-to-play in any way?

Rogers: Yeah, we have made that jump. That 425 million number doesn’t count free-to-play. We have Tetris Blitz now. Electronic Arts secured the mobile rights and decided to do a product that’s similar to their Bejeweled Blitz, a free, item-based game. That’s another level on top of the 425 million paid downloads.
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/07/m...-still-popular-after-three-decades-interview/
 

acm2000

Member
Remember this WILL count all the times it's been free as promo ie Amazon appstore numerous times etc, as those are technically "sales"
 

Beelzebubs

Member
Nice to see Alexey Pajitnov finally getting some money from his work instead of the Russian government after missing out til 96.
 

AniHawk

Member
i remember tetris was the big mobile game ten years ago when mobile games were mostly junk. it's been selling a long time on that platform. it kinda warms my heart to see something become really timeless from this industry.
 

HUELEN10

Member
Sadly, EA holds a monopoly over Tetris on mobile, and it fucking sucks...

Still have the original iOS release, not the new one with the shitty IAPs and glowing pieces that sear the eyes.
 

NewGame

Banned
How many of those belong to Steve Wozniak, though?

I can't recall the exact details but I think Tetris on Gameboy was the first version of the game in which the rights- the proper rights- unlike the one Tengen had of the game- to publish the title with Atari. According to the Wiki Nintendo sued Tengen but the water was still muddy about where Tetris was.

I'll have to look up the exact details.

November 1988
The Game Boy is undergoing development. Nintendo of America head Minoru Arakawa wants to make Tetris the pack-in game; he enlists Henk Rogers to get the handheld rights to Tetris for him. Rogers contacts Stein but basically gets stonewalled by him, so Rogers decides to fly to Moscow to get the rights himself. Stein, sensing why Rogers asked for the rights, flies to Moscow as well. Robert Maxwell's son, Kevin, also decides to fly to Moscow to straighten out what is by now a large-scale licensing mess. The three men fly into Moscow at the exact same time.

February 21, 1989
Rogers gets to ELORG representative Evgeni Belikov first. He impresses Alexey Pazhitnov and the Russians, and signs a contract for the handheld rights to Tetris. Afterward, Rogers shows off the Famicom version of Tetris to the Russians. Belikov is shocked. He didn't give Rogers the rights to make a console version! Rogers explains that he got the rights from Tengen; Belikov has never heard of Tengen! Rogers, trying to appease the Russians, tells Belikov the part of the story Stein did not tell him, and writes him a check for royalties on the Tetris cartridges he has already sold, with promises of more checks. He sees that he has a chance to get all the console rights to Tetris, but knows that the much larger Atari will fight him. Fortunately, he has Nintendo on his side!

A reminder: Robert Stein's original agreement was only for computer versions of Tetris. Any other rights he gave out weren't his to sell.

Later, Stein makes it to ELORG. Belikov makes him sign an alteration to the original contract defining computers as "PC computers which consist of a processor, monitor, disk drive(s), keyboard and operation system". Stein misses this line defining computers; he later realizes that it was all a big orchestration on Rogers' part to get his rights from Stein. The next day, he is told that, although he can't get the handheld rights at the moment, he can get the arcade-game rights. He signs the contract for them three days later.

February 22, 1989
Kevin Maxwell visits ELORG. Belikov takes out Rogers' Famicom Tetris cart and asks him about it. Maxwell was unaware that his own company gave some rights to Atari Games until he reads Mirrorsoft's name on the cartridge. Maxwell asserts that the cart is a pirated copy, and returns to his agenda of getting the arcade and handheld Tetris rights. He leaves with only the right to bid on any rights remaining on Tetris.

The final scorecard: Kevin Maxwell walks off with a piece of paper, Robert Stein with the arcade rights, and ELORG with conclusive evidence, thanks to Maxwell's assertion that any Famicom carts are pirates, that it never sold the video game rights. If Maxwell wanted those rights it would have to outbid Nintendo. Henk Rogers has the handheld rights and tells Arakawa at NOA that the console rights are up for grabs. BPS makes a deal to let Nintendo make Tetris for Game Boy; a deal that was ultimately worth between $5 and 10 million to BPS.

March 15, 1989
Henk Rogers returns to Moscow and makes a gigantic offer for the console rights to Tetris on behalf of Nintendo - an offer that, although undisclosed, was high enough that Mirrorsoft did not try to match it. Arakawa and NOA chief executive officer Howard Lincoln fly to the USSR.

March 22, 1989
A contract for the home videogame rights is finalized with Nintendo, which insists on a clause that the Russians would come to America to testify in the legal battle that would undoubtedly ensue after word of the contract comes out. The advance cash for ELORG is reported to be around $3 to 5 million. Belikov wires Mirrorsoft saying that neither it, Andromeda, or Tengen were authorized to distribute Tetris on video game systems, and that those rights are now given to Nintendo. The Nintendo and BPS executives have a party that night in their Moscow hotel room.
 

hesido

Member
That's absurdly high. Unbelievable numbers for a game that has survived several generations.

If I was the publisher, I'd go straight to free to play and miss all that sweet revenue. That's probably why I'm not a manager at a publisher.

Can we do a quick poll? I haven't bought the game, I wonder what percent of GAF has bought it.
 
425 million * $0.99 purchase from App store = $420.75 million in gross revenue * 70% goes to the publisher = $294.5 million in revenue from purchases
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Tetris DS best tetris.

When I bought tetris it was 10$ bucks smh.
I bought Tetris Axis for $10 because I wanted something ditigal on my 3DS. Totally not worth it even when you bring it back to vanilla play. If you want it on the eshop it's better to get the GB version.
 
That's absurdly high. Unbelievable numbers for a game that has survived several generations.

If I was the publisher, I'd go straight to free to play and miss all that sweet revenue. That's probably why I'm not a manager at a publisher.

Can we do a quick poll? I haven't bought the game, I wonder what percent of GAF has bought it.

It's free to play too. Tetris Blitz.
 
I'm actually very pleased with Tetris DS, Tetris Party Deluxe Wii and Tetris Axis for what they are. All three offer something different, and if you have the classic Tetris too then there's nothing more you can ask for.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
My heart skipped a best when I read "purchased". I thought the game was bought by Facebook or something.

Naw, more power to The Tetris Company. Alexei Pajitnov got screwed in the early years, by having most profit go to ELORG, and those who licensed from them.

Glad him and Henk Rogers are sitting fat and pretty.
 
Angry Birds OG had something like 600 mil downloads last time I heard but that could be among the times it was free.

VERY impressive for a paid version even if its tetris
 

Accoun

Member
Not sure if happy because it's Tetris, or sad because it's mobile and touchscreen controls make it an awful version.
 

Tizoc

Member
It just occurred to me I haven't played Tetris since that one NDS game.
I need Tetris in my life...what Tetris games are available on Steam, PSN or 3DS?
 

Alrus

Member
The game is available on nearly every phone out there, I remember having it on my old Razr. It's not really surprising it sold that much.
 

KKRT00

Member
It just occurred to me I haven't played Tetris since that one NDS game.
I need Tetris in my life...what Tetris games are available on Steam, PSN or 3DS?

You want to pay for Tetris when there are thousands Flash based copies for free?
 
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