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Mathematician Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris

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TETRIS® More Popular Than Ever!

Posted Jun 5, 2009

TETRIS® Products has Sold Over 125 Million

Video game industry legends Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov today announced the kickoff of the 25th anniversary celebration for TETRIS®. TETRIS is one of the world’s most popular casual computer games with over 125 million products sold on more than 30 platforms and available in more than 50 countries.

“TETRIS has driven the entire casual computer gaming industry,” said Rogers, President & CEO of Blue Planet Software, the company that manages the exclusive licensing rights to TETRIS. “One reason why TETRIS is so enduring is that it transcends culture. It is beyond language. It is part of a universal desire for order. Ultimately, it’s a mental sport – a mix of fun and mental stimulation.”

In June 1984, Pajitnov, a Russian-born mathematician wrote the program for TETRIS in his spare time.

His love of puzzles inspired him to create a game where players arranged distinctive puzzle pieces in real time along the bottom of the rectangular playing field or “matrix” in order to clear lines. “For a short time, I was the best TETRIS player in the world,” he said.

Rogers and Pajitnov said TETRIS is not resting on its laurels. “We have exciting plans for the future of TETRIS,” said Pajitnov. “We want to make TETRIS more accessible to kids, boomers, and busy moms – everyone who enjoys a fun, stimulating and even meditative short escape from the daily grind.”

Said Rogers, “The best is yet to come. We’re working on versions of TETRIS that will make it possible to have ‘international’ games similar to the Olympics, or the World Cup. The next generation of TETRIS games will align themselves to the user – so they can always be exactly what best fits any specific individual – ‘smart’ TETRIS games that quickly ‘learn their partner’ and adjust to give maximum game play satisfaction.

“We have a vision of the future where people all over the world can meet and become friends without speaking the same language. TETRIS players can better understand each other through mutual game play and create a new world fabric of ‘likenesses’ instead of differences by being connected through the universal language of Tetriminos – the distinctive world-famous playing pieces of TETRIS.”

The popularity of TETRIS has grown every year since its inception with the game’s greatest growth occurring on mobile phones. EA Mobile™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. holds the exclusive license for TETRIS on mobile devices and has sold over 75 million TETRIS® products on the mobile platform. Since debuting TETRIS on the Apple App Store in July of 2008, the game has become one of the top 10 game Apps of all time. AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone™, named TETRIS as the highest selling game for the first quarter of 2009. Because of this special relationship, TETRIS is holding 25th anniversary celebrations at the Electronic Arts Inc. booth #1501 at E3.

“TETRIS is the best-selling mobile phone game of all time, showing continued growth year after year all around the world,” said Adam Sussman, Vice President Worldwide Publishing for EA Mobile. “We are proud to join The Tetris Company in celebrating the 25th Anniversary of TETRIS; a product that has had such a significant impact on the entire video game industry.”

TETRIS is also growing online. In March 2009, Rogers and Pajitnov teamed up with Minoru Arakawa to announce the launch of Tetris Friends Online Games (www.tetrisfriends.com), the first and only official Web-based TETRIS game destination in North America. The Website is home to seven single-player and multiplayer games, with more TETRIS games in the pipeline. Even though Tetris Friends is just a few months old, over 1 million TETRIS games are played per day on the Website.

* Licensees of TETRIS have reported strong and steady sales because of the game’s universal appeal and enduring popularity. TETRIS is licensed to many of the most important consumer companies in the world, including: Electronic Arts Inc., Tetris Online, Inc., Tetris Online Japan, NHN Corporation, Mattel/Radica, Sega, DTI Software, Inc., THQ, Inc., Hallmark, Epoch Co., Ltd., Four Winds, Hand Held Co., Ltd., Kaon Media, TAG Networks, Sky Interactive, Imagination, and Men in Back. (Businesswire)

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