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.”
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi had never played his own video games
“And I realize, this guy's never Played any of the games on his machine. Yeah. And he hasn't, he's just run the company. He hasn't like played any of those games.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Rogers eventually bought out the Soviet agency ELORG and now owns it
“I ended up buying them. I own Elord now.”
The Black Onyx was the first role-playing video game in Japan
“The Black Onyx was the first role-playing game in Japan”
The Black Onyx became Japan's top-selling video game in 1984
“And then SoftBank came back, and we had, for April, we had 10,000 units. And in May, 10,000 units. So we were, like, killing it. We were number one game in, in Japan in 1984.”
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.”
ELORG's director panicked and redirected a Tetris wire transfer during Soviet privatization
“I remember there was a very interesting moment in time when it was just the transition when it became a private company, and it was Mr. Belikov called me up in a panic and said, you know, the money that you cabled me, can you, like, Get it back, and then send …”
The Tetris Company was formed as a 50-50 split with the Soviet ELORG
“So basically, I start hammering out the deal with Belikov, and we end up making a, making the Tetris company, and it's fifty-fifty. That's, you know, because they had the copyright and trademark in 60 countries, and that was just too much for me to try to figh…”
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.”
SoftBank cut its initial order for The Black Onyx from 3,000 to 600
“SoftBank had, had said they would buy 3000 copies for Christmas, and when it came close to Christmas, they realized that nobody understood what a role-playing game was, and so, and the little advertising that I did was just completely ineffective. So they roll…”
Rogers realized video games would be imported globally like movies and music
“So I started traveling around the world looking for games to bring to Japan, because at the time, movies were coming from other countries, and music was coming from other countries. So I could see that all this culture was being imported from a lot of from the…”
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi agreed to pay $300,000 for a Go game
“And he's sitting across from me, and Yamoichi says, I can't give you any programmers. I said, I don't need programmers. I just need money. And he says, how much? And I said, gosh, I mean, I, I'm thinking of what's the biggest number I can think of right now. A…”
Rogers became a Nintendo publisher by agreeing to a $1-per-cartridge royalty
“I said, ok, I'll pay you a dollar per unit until you get your money back. Deal. And so that's how I became a Nintendo publisher.”
Rogers scheduled meetings late to play Go with Nintendo's president
“Whenever I met him after that, I always set up the meeting on a day when I'm the last meeting. His last meeting, and then we would play Go for the rest of the day. I had all this one-on-one time with Yamauchi, which nobody had.”
Nintendo's president would fire subordinates who canceled his scheduled meetings
“If he ever found out that one of his underlings had canceled a meeting, that person would be fired.”
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.”
Nintendo cartridges prevented the software piracy that plagued early PC games
“It was the way to make money. It's, you know, like personal computers, you can copy that stuff. Right. So there's only so much you can sell. But cartridges, you can't copy them. If somebody wants to play a Nintendo game, they have to buy a Nintendo game.”
Rogers obtained a tourist visa to negotiate for Tetris directly in Moscow
“I got a tourist visa and went to Moscow myself.”
Eight Soviet officials interrogated Rogers over his Tetris console rights
“And then the next day in the room, eight people and me, I was being interrogated.”
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 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.”
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?”
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.”
Rogers and Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov sealed their 1993 partnership via handshake
“And it's 93, and he said, look I'm gonna make you an offer, you're gonna represent me, you're gonna take care of me, and you and me are gonna be partners. And basically made me an offer, and we shook hands in, in 93. That, that handshake is still alive today.”
Blue Lava Wireless achieved 50% profit margins on over $20M in sales
“Right, exactly, and that's, I don't know, 50% profit.”
Rogers sold Blue Lava with a 15-year Tetris license, keeping IP ownership
“And the company that I sold, Blue Lava Wireless, what I did was I gave that company a 15 year license to Tetris from the Tetris company. So we never lost ownership of Tetris.”