The Ledger
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Tetris was the first video game to be widely played by women
“It's completely genderless. You know, it's the first game that was being played by women. Just by that alone, it could, you know, double the sales.”
Soviet officials revealed they had never actually licensed Tetris console rights
“And he, Took the Tetris cartridge box into his hand, and he looked at it, and looked at it, and he looked at me, and he said, we never licensed console rights to anyone.”
Bundling Tetris, instead of Mario, made the Game Boy a universal device
“If you want little boys to buy your Game Boy, then include Mario, but if you want everyone to buy your Game Boy, include Tetris.”
Rogers used his in-laws' real estate as collateral for a $2M loan
“So I convinced my wife to convince her parents to put up all of their real estate as collateral for a loan.”
Rogers paid Atari Games $300,000 for Japanese Nintendo Tetris rights
“I think I made the deal for 300,000 dollars.”
Nintendo agreed to a $1M upfront guarantee for handheld Tetris rights
“Arakawa made me a deal. I made him an offer and he shook my hand and It was like a million dollar up front, which was like, yeah, right on. Great deal.”
Soviet authorities lacked IP experience and received minimal early Tetris royalties
“The Soviets just didn't have any experience with intellectual property, and here they were, you know, they were getting a percentage of a percentage of a percentage.”
A 50-50 voting structure paralyzed Tetris licensing deals for three years
“So, basically at that point, for the next three years, no deals went through, because every deal that I brought to the table, he said no, and every deal that he brought to the table, I said no.”
Tetris went so viral in Soviet offices it measurably hurt productivity
“Basically, they made the PC version. And that's what went viral. And it went viral to the point where they were losing productivity.”
Game Boy Tetris sold 30 million bundled copies and 5 million standalone
“Thirty million packed in, and another five million as just sold as a box product.”
Soviet officials offered Rogers the Tetris console rights during their meeting
“And so, after I signed the contract, lockdown handheld, Mr. Belikoff asks me, Mr. Rogers, how would you like to license the console rights?”
Blue Lava Wireless achieved 50% profit margins on over $20M in sales
“Right, exactly, and that's, I don't know, 50% profit.”
Rogers offered the Soviet government 25 cents per Game Boy Tetris copy
“The offer that I made them was I would pay them 25 cents for every Game Boy Tetris that was sold.”
Rogers was the first video game designer Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov met
“And Alexi, that was the thing that flipped him, because he'd never met a game designer before. I was the first game designer that he met.”
Rogers obtained a tourist visa to negotiate for Tetris directly in Moscow
“I got a tourist visa and went to Moscow myself.”