'Mr. Tetris' explains why the puzzle game is still popular after three decades (interview)

Philadelphians were treated Saturday to the biggest game of Tetris the world has ever seen. It was played on two sides of a 29-story building in honor of Philly Tech Week. Henk Rogers, who brought Alexey Pajitnov’s game to the West more than three decades ago, was on hand to witness the spectacle.

Henk Rogers and Frank Lee play giant Tetris game.
Henk Rogers and Frank Lee play a giant Tetris game.

The event was one of a number of celebrations happening this year in honor of the 30th anniversary of Tetris, which Pajitnov created in the former Soviet Union in 1984. Rogers made the trek to Moscow to meet Pajitnov and get the rights to publish the puzzler in the rest of the world. Rogers licensed the game to Nintendo, and by 1989, people had bought more than 35 million copies.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.