Tetris
Tetris is one of the leading and most distinctive video game brands, as well as franchises in the world. The video game brand is known worldwide and played by people of all ages and cultures. Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984 while working for the Moscow Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union. He came up with the name Tetris from the Greek numerical prefix tetra and tennis, which is his favorite sport. Tetris was the first entertainment software to be exported from the USSR to the United States. It was published by Spectrum Holobyte for Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The game is available for nearly each type of video game console and computer operating system. Other devices, such as mobile phones, graphing calculators, portable media players, network music players and PDA’s contain the game.

About
It is a puzzle video game with distinctive “falling” pieces that players must arrange into a rectangular playing field. The game is timed and players must complete an entire row of blocks in order to clear a line. The object of the game is to clear as many lines as possible before time runs out. Each level the blocks fall faster. Four years after the game appeared on the market, Henk Rogers discovered Tetris at a Las Vegas trade show and was confident it would become a big hit. He flew to Moscow one year later to secure the handheld rights to the game. Rogers also negotiated an agreement with Nintendo to launch Tetris on the handheld Game Boy in 1989. The game came with each purchased Game Boy system and over 35 million copies of the game were sold worldwide.

Accomplishments
The Tetris game is sold in over 185 countries, which represents 95% coverage over the entire world. The game is translated into more than 50 languages and has been released on over 50 platforms. Hundreds of millions of Tetris products, such as games, clothing and books, have been sold. As of April 2011, Tetris is one of the best-selling mobile games ever and has surpassed over 132 million paid mobile downloads. The game launched on popular platforms like the iPad, RIM Blackberry Playbook, Sony Ericsson Xperia and Windows Phone 7 on their launch day. Some facts about the Tetris Battle on Facebook include over 1 million players daily and it is listed as one of the top 20 gaming applications on Facebook.

Awards
In 1989, the Software Publisher’s Association awarded Tetris four “Excellence in Software” awards, which are comparable to Oscar’s in the software industry. Tetris came in number one in the Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue in 1997. Game Informer Magazine’s 100th issue listed Tetris as number 3 on its “Top 100 Game of All Time.” In 2006, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranks Tetris number four in “The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time” and Pocketgamer awards the mobile version of Tetris the Pocketgamer Platinum Award. All in the year 2007, Pajitnov receives the First Penguin Award at the Game Developers Conference, the game makes the top ten list in Edge Magazine’s July issue featuring the 100 best video games and the IGN website names Tetris number two in the Top 100 Games of All Times. Tetris Party was nominated for Best WiiWare Game 2008 and Best Puzzle Game 2008 by the IGN website. Entertainment Weekly’s 1000th issue names Tetris number one on its list of the top 50 games from the last 25 years. The Guinness Book of World Records 2009 Gamer’s Edition ranked Tetris number two on the Top 50 Console Games of All Time. Also in 2009, Edge Magazine names Tetris number seven on its 100 Best Games to Play Today list, the Nielson Company ranked the game number one on its Top Ten Mobile Games of 2008 and the game was also named one of the All-Time Top 10 Paid Applications on the Apple iTunes App Store. Tetris topped 100 million downloads and officially became the Best-Selling Mobile Game of all time in 2010. As of 2011, the popular game is still receiving awards like Dr. Toys 10 Best Games for 2011 and Dr. Toys 100 Best Children’s Products for 2011. Kotaku calls the free Android cell phone version “An Excellent Reason to Own an Android Device” and Game Informer names Tetris one of the “20 Mobile Games You Should Be Playing.”

Fun Facts
The blocks that fall during the game are called Tetriminos. In 2006, Honda released a commercial with luggage and furniture falling like Tetriminos organized into the trunk of a Honda Pass in Europe. An outdoor art exhibit in Australia featured giant Tetrimino sculptures that lit up the corridors of Abercrombie Lane in 2009. The Dutch students of the Delft University of Technology lit up 15 floors of their electrical engineering department to play a working game of Tetris in 1995, which is also the record for the world’s largest working game.

Contests

Every two years Alexey Pajitnov hosts a Tetris World Championship. The final two players from the contest compete heads-up for the best two out of three, no time limit High Score Tetris match. The player who scores the highest score two out of three games is the Tetris World Champion.