In 1984, Russian scientist Alexey Pajitnov developed the very first version of Tetris on an Electronika 60, it quickly spread throughout the Soviet Union before being discovered by video-game designer Henk Rogers at a Las Vegas tradeshow in 1988. What followed (depicted in the film, Tetris) was the extraordinary story of how Henk risked everything– travelling to the Soviet Union to negotiate with the government to secure the rights for what would eventually become the most popular game in history.
Today, Tetris is the top-selling video game of all time – played in more than 200 countries, with over 520 million units having been sold and nearly 700 million downloads on mobile devices. Tetris is also one of the most studied games in history with over 30 scientific studies, showing the game has positive effects on PTSD and brain efficiency, and can be used to treat amblyopia (lazy eye), and control diet and other cravings.
In this exclusive interview series, I speak to Alexey L. Pajitnov (Creator of Tetris), Henk Rogers (Founder & Chairman, The Tetris Company) and Maya Rogers (President & CEO, Tetris, Inc). We discuss the past, present and future of Tetris, and how it grew to become the most successful game in history.
Q: How did you find a passion for games?
[Alexey Pajitnov]: I was probably a smart kid—that was the first thing. So, whenever I was presented with a puzzle, I enjoyed the challenge of solving it. That was how I measured the situation. My father also loved puzzles and was really good at them. He wasn’t into technical stuff; he was more of a humanitarian. But he had a very sharp mind, and it was a big pleasure to watch him solve really complicated puzzles with me. I remember that pleasure vividly throughout my life. And another reason is that, in the Soviet Union, we didn’t have much entertainment. There were movies, but not many, and puzzles and games were a natural, inexpensive way to have fun and enjoy ourselves.
<laughs>
the real chess players are all from Georgia! It’s a place with a strong patriarchal culture, so there wasn’t a lot of social participation of that type. And in their traditional Georgian wedding set, one of the items the bride would bring to her new home was a chessboard.
Q: What influences came together, to create the concept of Tetris?
[Alexey Pajitnov]: …the main inspiration for Tetris came from the game Pentominoes. Are you familiar with it? I have two sets: one is a more modern Japanese version, and the other is a traditional Russian set. Let me show you. It’s a box containing 12 different pentomino shapes, representing all the possible pieces you can make with five squares. ‘Penta’ means five in Greek. So, like ‘domino’ refers to two squares together, ‘triomino’ is a figure made from three squares, and so on. The Tetriminos, like the ones in Tetris, are figures made from four squares. These shapes are connected by the surfaces around them.
When you take the pieces off the table and start playing, it’s like a tangram puzzle—you put together various silhouettes and shapes. But when you’re done, the real challenge begins: trying to fit them back into the box, arranging them into a rectangular shape. For an experienced player, this can take around 30-40 minutes. This was one of my favourite puzzles, and I took an inexplicable pleasure in playing with these pieces for many years. It’s not my puzzle; it’s a traditional game that exists in different forms, often using playing fields of 5×12 or 10×6 squares.
At one point, I thought about creating a two-player board game using this set. I didn’t have a clear idea of what the game should be, but I knew it would involve two players taking turns, and the player who couldn’t make a move would lose. There were many questions about how to arrange and design it, but I decided to figure that out later. The first challenge was to put it on my very, very early computer, which had no graphics, no sound, and just 24 lines of 80 ASCII symbols in one colour. That’s all I had at my disposal.
[Vikas: …and the graphics on today’s Tetris games are incredible!]
[Alexey Pajitnov]: …at that time, it was an interesting challenge to design and program the game. I started putting together the procedures needed for such a game. You have to arrange the playing field, figure out how to display the shapes on the screen, and determine how the player will organize these shapes. There were many aspects to consider: moving the pieces, rotating them, placing them, and even selecting them. There were a lot of routines in programming that I needed to prepare for. I worked on them one by one.
At some point, while working on the rotation routine, I was watching a piece rotate on the screen. It was then that the idea struck me—the game could be played in real-time. That was the very first important ‘aha’ moment for Tetris.
Q: Why are games of geometry so popular?
[Alexey Pajitnov]: As a mathematician, I wouldn’t classify Tetris as a geometric game; geometry typically involves straight lines, circles, and similar shapes. I do have a true geometric game called ‘Color Connection,’ which was part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack. That one is genuinely geometric. However, I would describe Tetris as more of a traditional grid puzzle. The complex shapes of the pentominoes and Tetriminos are a crucial aspect of the game, no doubt about it.
Q: When you created Tetris, did you realise the potential it would have?
[Alexey Pajitnov]: I definitely didn’t anticipate that! When the first real version of the game came to life on my screen—without any decorations, scoring, or anything, just the playing field and the pieces—I couldn’t stop playing. I realized there was something truly magical about the game. But I could never have imagined what it would become; that was one of the biggest surprises.
Q: What did you first see in Tetris that made it so attractive to you?
[Henk Rogers]: I looked at it and thought, ‘How can something this simple be so compelling?’ It was compelling enough for me to take time out of the Consumer Electronics Show to go back and play over and over. I mean, I was hooked from the first time I played it. I couldn’t explain what was going on. Usually, people think that if a game is too simple, there must be something wrong with it. But I approached it from a different perspective because I play Go, a Japanese board game that’s the simplest-looking game: just black and white stones on a board. Chess, at least, has pieces that resemble characters, but Go is purely abstract. However, when you understand what’s happening on a Go board, you realize it’s the deepest game that exists. And here was another game, super simple yet incredibly compelling. That’s what hooked me.
Q: Why did you take the risks needed to commercialise the game?
[Henk Rogers]: I saw Tetris at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 1988. By the end of that year, I had already been publishing Tetris on about seven different personal computer platforms in Japan, including the Nintendo Family Computer. That’s the situation: Tetris was taking off. We released the product, and the market completely absorbed everything we made, to the point where we had an order for 200,000 units. This was after flopping at Christmas with 70,000 units.
I even had my wife convince my in-laws to mortgage their property, for Christ’s sake, so I could produce these cartridges. I knew I had something special. Game Boy was coming out at that time, and I thought Tetris was the perfect game for it. The Game Boy’s screen was black and white, and other games, like shooting games, had bullets that were too small to see clearly. Tetris, on the other hand, was perfect for that screen, and I think I was right.
Anyway, I had been dealing with Stein to get the Game Boy rights. We exchanged faxes for five or six months, and I paid him $25,000 to secure the rights. But he kept delaying, always saying ‘later, later, later.’ Then, one day, I got a call from Mr. Arakawa, President of Nintendo. He said that Gilman Louie claimed he could get him the Game Boy rights to Tetris. I thought, ‘What the hell?’ I had already pitched to Nintendo, saying, ‘If you want little boys to play Tetris, include Mario. But if you want everyone to play it…’ and we had a handshake deal for a million dollars.
When Arakawa told me someone else was offering him the rights, alarm bells went off. It seemed like Stein might be double-dealing. So, without thinking it through, I got a tourist visa and flew to Moscow. I didn’t consider the repercussions or how risky it could be—I just did it. If Stein could go to Moscow, so could I. Others had gone there, and I knew tourists were allowed. So I went as a tourist, and we’d figure things out from there.
Q: What makes Tetris such a successful game?
[Alexey Pajitnov]: Well, you’re not the first person to ask me this question! This puzzle fascinates everyone in the industry, believe me. I have around 15 different reasons why Tetris succeeded. The game somehow transcended the typical expectations for a simple puzzle at that time. It’s like a lucky combination of factors came together perfectly, much like how Tetris pieces fit together.
First of all, puzzles were often seen as childish activities, which is why most of them had child-friendly themes and designs, like animal toys. But Tetris was different—it’s very abstract and serious, which made it appealing to adults. This was socially significant, especially when it first appeared, because personal computers were just being introduced to the public. There was a significant psychological barrier; people were afraid of making mistakes and ruining their work. But when they saw this engaging, simple game on the screen, they understood what to do and felt successful. It broke down that fear and made people more comfortable with computers. This was crucial at the time and helped the game stand out.
Tetris also has an incredibly long learning curve, which is unique. Most games, even very successful ones, have a steep learning curve that you can master relatively quickly. But in Tetris, the learning curve is gradual and seemingly endless. You continually feel like you’re improving—getting faster, more skilled, and more savvy. It’s just the magic of the game. This sense of getting better activates a pleasure centre in your brain, providing a lasting sense of accomplishment.
Typically, marketing experts believe that you need to arm your player with skills as quickly as possible; if they don’t feel successful within the first 20 seconds, you risk losing them. But Tetris showed that a long learning curve could be a source of pleasure and engagement over time. That’s probably an important aspect that became clearer to me later. And I could give you a hundred other reasons for its success.
Q: How did you create the unique soundtrack for Tetris?
[Henk Rogers]: While working on the Nintendo version of Tetris, I needed music for the game. I was wondering if we should create original music, which usually involves hiring a composer for a lot of money. But then I thought, ‘This is a Russian game.’ So I started considering what Russian music could fit the game. When I thought about those songs, I realized they were public domain because they’re folk songs. This meant we wouldn’t have to pay any royalties. So, I simply told my music guy to pick the top three songs, and we went with them, the most famous being Korobeiniki.
It turns out that two of them are historical, like ‘Troika,’ which refers to three horses pulling a sled. I think ‘Katyusha‘ is about a soldier in World War II singing about his girlfriend. I had no idea about the backgrounds of these songs at the time. Interestingly, two out of the three songs were ancient, predating the Soviet Union, while one was definitely from the Soviet era.
Q: What do you think of the meditative properties of Tetris for players?
[Henk Rogers]: I actually believe that Tetris is like a form of meditation. Meditation typically takes time to enter and exit the meditative state, usually around 15 minutes for a session. With Tetris, you can achieve a similar state in just 3 to 5 minutes. It’s like, bang, you’re in, and your mind becomes completely absorbed.
I think it engages different parts of your brain—handling horizontal and vertical movements, colours—triggering all these aspects simultaneously. That’s the magic of it. Some games only engage parts of your brain, but Tetris uses all of it. When you get into the zone, the part of your brain usually busy processing incoming data is occupied, allowing you to ‘float.’ That’s the zone, a state where, like athletes, you watch yourself play rather than actively playing. I believe this is akin to meditation: when your conscious mind is busy, it gives you time to float in your subconscious.
Q: Why has Tetris grown and outlasted any other computer game?
[Henk Rogers]: I think what we’re doing is hitting some kind of pleasure centre in the brain. The problem is when it’s hit too much, people can get addicted and end up playing for hours and hours. That’s taking it too far. If I could do it all over again, I would limit people’s playtime to twice a day, 10 minutes max. But what game publisher would agree to that? None. So, I came up with the idea, and they said no, we’re not doing this. And frankly, what do I play today? I play freaking Wordle.
The problem with Wordle is that it only works well if you’re pretty good at English. English has the most words of any language in the world, likely including the most five-letter words by far. So, Wordle essentially only works in English and only for people who know a lot of five-letter words. This excludes everyone who doesn’t speak English. Tetris, on the other hand, is just geometry. There’s no language barrier; it’s simply geometry, which everyone can understand.
Q: What are your biggest learnings about how to lead & grow a scale-up brand?
[Henk Rogers]: <laughs> …don’t fuck it up!
Vikas: Excellent life advice!
[Henk Rogers]: …we have a brand, and often people suggest adding new elements—like creating a character or making other changes. But we pretty much like Tetris the way it is. It’s like football or soccer. Imagine introducing a second ball or something to make the game more interesting. The answer is no; the game is already great as it is. We can live with things like instant replay to improve referee calls, but the core game must remain pure.
All the classic games that still exist today—like baseball, basketball, and cricket—have roots that go back a long way, yet they remain recognizable. They haven’t changed so much that they’ve lost their essence, although sports like rugby and football have evolved in their own directions. What I’m saying is, to ensure the longevity of Tetris, we must ensure our licensees don’t take the game away from its original simplicity.
Q: What does legacy mean to you?
[Henk Rogers]: First of all, I would like my legacy to be one that shows I genuinely contributed to the sum total of human existence and consciousness. I don’t want to be just a leech on society, pulling in money and then spending the rest of my life playing golf and drinking, only to donate the money away later. That’s not my legacy. My legacy is about making a meaningful impact, and right now, I’m focusing on climate change. That’s my big mission, and I’m starting to feel like it’s becoming effective.
I believe this mission is much bigger than Tetris. If I’ve gained any abilities—like speaking, decision-making, or management—while making Tetris successful, I now need to use all those skills to help fix our planet. Because winning the war against climate change is the most important thing. It’s a slow-moving disaster that’s getting worse, and we still have a chance to do something about it. And because we can, we must.
[Vikas: and how did you approach making a meaningful impact?]
[Henk Rogers]: …it started in Hawaii because I was living there. I decided to figure out the biggest use of carbon-based fuel in Hawaii, which turned out to be electricity generation. At the time, Hawaii was importing $5 billion worth of oil and $1 billion worth of coal. All the coal and about 40% of the oil, roughly $2 billion, went to generating electricity. Another 30% of the oil was used for jet fuel, and 30% for ground transportation. So we decided to tackle electricity first.
We started the Blue Planet Foundation, and our big claim to fame was a bottom-up approach. We had children go door to door to exchange 300,000 lightbulbs and junior high school students draw on sidewalks to show where high tide would be with a 1-meter rise in sea level. We got the people on our side and then passed a law mandating that Hawaii achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045. We also made it so that the electric company could profit more by switching to renewables, bringing them on board as well. So we had the people, the government, and the utility all on our side.
The utility was paying 25 cents per kilowatt-hour to buy oil, while wind and solar came in at 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, and with batteries, it was up to 12 cents. That’s half the cost, allowing them to make more profit while reducing rates for consumers. Everyone wins. Now, wind and solar on the mainland are less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. You can’t compete with free energy from the sun and wind. There’s no excuse for not adopting renewables globally; it’s just a matter of time. The sooner we do it, the better off everyone will be.
What’s next? There are other behaviours I’d like to see change. For example, I don’t eat meat because cattle are a major cause of deforestation worldwide. We need to stop eating beef to halt deforestation. We also need to find alternatives to wood as a building material. All these changes can happen, and I believe they need to by 2045, the 100th anniversary of the United Nations. That’s my vision: a world where humanity and nature live in harmony by or before 2045. You need a deadline for things to happen, and 2045 is as good a deadline as any.
Q: What is the essence of Tetris as a business?
[Maya Rogers]: When my father was running the business, it was clear that he was a gamer and a programmer. Alexey and Henk connected because they were both game designers, and being gamers was central to their connection. As we grew up playing Tetris, we started seeing it beyond just the game. Whether packing the dishwasher or a suitcase, the Tetris effect kicks in—you see Tetriminos everywhere. It’s not just about the game; there’s something innate about Tetris that resonates with the human need to create order out of chaos, a universal concept that extends beyond video games.
For us, it became important to make Tetris a lifestyle brand, not just a video game brand, integrating it into everyday life. We explored this through merchandising, collaborating with fashion brands, and even releasing a movie last year that tells the story of Henk and Alexey’s friendship and the history of Tetris.
As a licensing business, we have some in-house development but don’t make all the games ourselves. Licensing allows us to expand into various areas. We work with partners like Nintendo and Sega, and other big video game publishers, whom I consider subject matter experts. They know what’s popular and current in their fields, so we collaborate to expand the Tetris brand. For example, with Nintendo, we developed Tetris 99, a battle royale-style game where you play against 99 other players, making the game competitive and appealing to younger audiences. We also launched a mobile game with PlayStudios, which involves block puzzles, expanding Tetris beyond just competitive gameplay. We’re keeping the core of the seven Tetriminos but finding new ways to evolve the brand. I could go on, but I’ll stop here!
Q: How did you handle the ‘weight’ of taking leadership of an iconic brand like Tetris?
[Maya Rogers]: I should start by saying I have a very close connection with Tetris—my father founded The Tetris Company. In the 1980s, he travelled to the Soviet Union on a tourist visa and convinced Alexey Pajitnov and the Russians to give him the license, beating out some other notable people. The brand has been near and dear to my heart since I was a little girl; you could say I grew up with it. So, that’s number one—it’s always been a part of me. When you ask about the weight of this brand, being the biggest brand out there, it’s true, but for me, it’s just part of what I grew up with, so I never really thought about it in that sense. But at the same time, it’s like family to me. So, for me, there was no question—this daunting task of creating and keeping this legacy alive was something I could do, no problem. When my father was 52, he had a heart attack and almost died; he had a 100% blockage in the widowmaker. On the way to the hospital, he had a full-on heart attack, just minutes away from not making it. That experience was a turning point for me. I was already working in the games industry at Sony PlayStation at the time, and I felt a calling to ask my father if I could come and work with him. It felt like an intuition, something I needed to do, to learn from him while he was still alive. It wasn’t until years later that he asked me to stay involved, and I never really thought about quitting. It was just something I felt I could and needed to do. So now, when you ask about the challenge, I realize it’s a huge, daunting task, but I’ve never thought of it that way, if that makes sense.
Q: How do you adapt Tetris to different markets?
[Maya Rogers]: We ensure that every version of Tetris includes the classic marathon mode—the one where the well keeps going faster and the Tetriminos keep falling. This mode is essential because it’s the game that everyone knows and loves. Keeping this core element consistent across all versions makes everyone happy across the spectrum of different video game preferences.
Growing up in both Japan and the US, I’ve come to appreciate the universal appeal of Tetris, and Henk shares this understanding. Being bicultural, we realize that all humans share common experiences. We focus on maintaining that core essence, which has been key to the long-term success of Tetris. It’s available on every platform, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the core game. At the same time, we also expand into different types of games to appeal to new generations and diverse cultural backgrounds.
The principle of “keep it simple, stupid” applies well here—Tetris works because it’s a perfect game. Our goal is to make sure this simplicity and appeal are accessible everywhere.
Q: How do you keep Tetris popular for a younger generation of gamer?
[Maya Rogers]: It’s important to stay aware of what’s popular and current, and to adapt to those trends. It helps that we have the most recognizable game in the world, and Tetris is kind of the perfect game—it’s evergreen. Unlike many games that need constant reinvention, Tetris continues to resonate across generations. Every generation that plays it experiences the same emotional connection. People often tell me how many hours they spent playing on the Game Boy, or on the DS, showing that each generation has its own version of Tetris.
Some people ask if the game is still relevant today, often because they aren’t current gamers. But when you look at younger players, their first encounter with Tetris might have been Tetris 99 on the Switch, and that’s the version they remember. Each generation experiences that ‘Tetris Effect’ and recognizes it as the perfect game.
To keep Tetris evergreen, we innovate while staying true to the core game. For instance, we developed Tetris Effect: Connected, which introduced a surreal, VR experience. It was unexpected and attracted both new and older generations of players. Despite these innovations, the game still revolves around the fundamental appeal of creating order out of chaos.
[Vikas: and what about Tetris Effect Connected where you created a brand new soundtrack? Was that a big risk]
[Maya Rogers]: Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the creator of Tetris Effect and Tetris Effect: Connected, has been a friend of ours for a long time. We’ve had a longstanding relationship—it’s a small video game industry. This game content had been in development for quite some time. We had often talked about how great it would be to create a Tetris game together. In fact there was even one year when we tried to showcase the game at Burning Man, testing it out there.
We believe in taking risks to see if an idea will work, and this collaboration with Miz was a no-brainer because he’s such a talented game designer. His games often blend interactive music with gameplay, making it a perfect fit for Tetris. We had wanted to collaborate years ago, but there were some licensing issues that prevented it at the time. The timing finally aligned, and now Tetris Effect: Connected has proven to have great longevity. We’re even hosting esports competitions with the game, possibly even one happening online right now. Expanding into esports is part of adapting to what’s popular today, with people actively competing in these events.
Q: It seems Tetris may also have mental health benefits?
[Maya Rogers]: Tetris is a game that has been the subject of extensive scientific research—over 30 different studies, if not more. One significant finding is that Tetris can help with PTSD. Researchers have found that playing Tetris can help people with trauma alleviate their symptoms. This research has been replicated multiple times, and Henk is particularly passionate about this topic. There’s something special about the game that goes beyond being just a game. Perhaps this is why Tetris has such an enduring appeal; it’s not just entertaining, but it also seems to offer benefits we may not fully understand yet, such as helping people become more mindful. I think that’s wonderful, especially since the whole world could use a bit more mindfulness.
Q: What has your journey with Tetris taught you about investment in startups & scaleups?
[Maya Rogers]: …we accelerate startups and invest in early-stage companies. Our focus areas include gaming, but we also prioritize supporting women founders. Based in Hawaii, we ensure that half of the companies we invest in are from Hawaii, while the other half can come from anywhere. One key factor we consider is the founder and the team. Even if you have a great idea, it’s likely that many others have thought of it too. The crucial question is whether you can execute it better than anyone else.
We look for founders with the ability to expand their business and tell their story effectively. If you can’t sell your vision to investors, you won’t get far. Most businesses fail, so we place a high value on the strength of the founder and their team.
Another important factor is having a global perspective. Tetris became a global brand because it was accessible to everyone. We look for companies that, while solving a specific problem, have a vision that can be applied globally, beyond their niche.
Lastly, simplicity is key. Tetris is a simple game with complex gameplay, but it’s easy to understand. Don’t overcomplicate what you’re trying to build. Focus on solving one problem well before expanding. If you can summarize what your business does in an elevator pitch of three or four words, people will understand it. If you can’t explain it simply, it might be too complicated.