Why the ‘perfect game’ is still with us decades later | Tetris interview

Tetris turned 40 this year and it’s still a game that people just keep on playing.

I talked with Maya Rogers, CEO of Tetris, in Riyadh at the New Global Sport Conference in Riyadh. She took over years ago from her father, Henk Rogers, who was immortalized in the Tetris movie alongside creator Alexey Pajitnov for bringing Tetris to massive global audiences.

A bit biased, she thinks of Tetris as the perfect game, and she said, “We don’t want to mess with that.” She’s traveling the world is search of new opportunities to ensure it remains a game that parents and kids play together.

Maya Rogers’ job has been to keep coming up with new forms of Tetris on new platforms, such as taking the game to McDonald’s toy giveaways, the Tetris movie, Tetris 99, Tetris Connected, Puyo Puyo Tetris and more to put the game in front of a new generation of gamers.

Among the new markets she is excited about is the Middle East, where there are tons of young gamers and women entering the workforce to make games. In fact, Maya Rogers said she would love to see the perfect game become part of the Esports Olympics, which is coming to Saudi Arabia.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

Disclosure: NGSC paid my way to Riyadh and GamesBeat was a media partner for the event.

GamesBeat: What was your talk about at this conference?

Maya Rogers: The recipe for [our success is that] Alexey Pajitnov created the perfect game. Everyone knows how to play it. It’s easy to enter and difficult to master. That’s helped. And of course staying relevant, being available on every platform where gamers go. Wherever games are played, Tetris is available. We’re top of mind for users all over the world. That’s one of the keys. Of course, maintaining true to the core of the game. Is it a Tetris game? Does it evoke that same joy when you play? Honoring the music, the gameplay, and the history. Those are all things that wrap around how we stay relevant.

GamesBeat: It seems like you’re always looking for these moments for a revival. A way to keep it fresh for people to find it.

Rogers: It’s been an interesting journey. We’ve gone beyond games. We’ve had the Tetris movie. It’s an iconic brand. We want to extend it into a lifestyle. It’s not just a video game anymore. But even within video games, we’ve innovated with games like Tetris 99, Tetris Connected, Puyo Puyo Tetris. Different touch points that reach a younger generation of gamers.

Depending on who you ask, they’ve all played Tetris, but they have a different story. For me it’s the Game Boy and the NES. Talk to someone else–we were in Cologne. I was talking to a 23-year-old bartender. They said, “Oh, yes, I love Tetris. I played the old school version on my phone.” For him that’s old school. Tetris is still relevant. The initial touch point just depends on who you ask. What’s beautiful about that, every person who’s played Tetris has that experience. “I remember this game that I used to play.”

GamesBeat: This is your second time here in Riyadh. What has brought you back?

Rogers: I’m glad I came last year, because it was a big learning experience. You see the dedication and the power that’s behind the industry. I said to someone earlier, you get to build a new industry here with the younger generation, the younger workforce. There are so many women. They’re encouraging women to become programmers and animators. They can mold how this industry is going to be built for the future.

GamesBeat: It’s been fascinating to see how gaming and esports can propel social change.

Rogers: We owe it to ourselves. For me personally, climate change and sustainability, that’s such a big factor. It needs to be represented. How can we represent that in a video game so that it’s not just an afterthought, but we are contributing to it? From top to bottom, that’s something I’m passionate about. How can we incorporate sustainability into our everyday lives? Everyone is affected by it.

GamesBeat: Is there a particular mission to accomplish in the Middle East?

Rogers: The awareness is here. For a lot of us who are coming from the west, coming to the MENA region, seeing it for the first time, you’re just astonished. There’s such a fanfare, such a presence for video games here. It’s not to be overlooked. Now that we’re here and seeing the excitement, we want to be able to do more. It’s all global now. Everything is global. We’re all connected. I’m very excited to be here.

GamesBeat: What do you see as a good net result that could come out of exploring this region?

Rogers: They just announced the Esports Olympics. Tetris may be the perfect game for the Olympics. It’s a global brand. It’s iconic, just like the Olympics. Everyone knows it. That would be the perfect marriage. If we could say that we’re an Olympic sport, that really legitimizes the video game industry. It stands against this notion that video games could be bad for you.

GamesBeat: How do you come to think about issues around human rights, women’s rights and so on, versus the hope they have for the future?

Rogers: With every culture there’s some kind of shift that happens. If you look at all the countries that “become westernized,” they’ve gone through this shift. There’s a lot of negativity, but it’s all politics, I feel. When you travel the world and meet people from different cultures, you realize that we’re all the same. It’s not about, “Your culture’s bad.” There’s tradition. That should be respected.

Again, it’s a unique position to be in. I was able to visit Bhutan many years ago. That’s another example of–they bypassed cable TV and went straight to mobile phones. How do you still keep your culture while adapting to a new world? Saudi Arabia is a perfect example of a country shifting with a new generation and seeing immediate change. Some things may never change, and that’s okay. We should respect everyone from all cultures, just like we do in Tetris. We’re all colors, we’re all different, but we all can be together.

The fact that we’ve been around so long is because–it’s true of Henk and Alexey. Two people from vastly different parts of the world who came together with a common love of games. It’s exciting to see that happening here in Saudi Arabia.

GamesBeat: When you’re running the company, how do you look at different opportunities? How do you decide when something is worth doing with Tetris? You haven’t gone off on sidequests with a lot of other games. You’ve taken this one thing and seen how far it goes.

Rogers: Before I started running the company, we were doing other games. But ultimately Tetris was the golden egg. We realized that, again, it’s a perfect game, an evergreen game. How can we make sure that transcends time and everything else? That’s been the biggest thing for us. When we look at our game and our brand, we always think about the players, our customers. People that interact with the brand. What do they want? If that makes sense for the brand, it makes sense for Tetris–it’s about being part of this transmedia world where, as a fan, we should be able to engage with the brands we love.

That’s how I think today’s industry has changed a bit. Before it was kind of a one-way street. Now it’s every way. It’s not just video games. It’s entertainment and lifestyle. All of the above. When we look at which new opportunities to go after, we think about, who is our user base? Does it make sense for them? Does it bring them joy?

GamesBeat: There are all kinds of things you can still do. You can get into cars. You can get into airplanes. You can get into wearables.

Rogers: We’re already in airplanes. We’re probably in a lot of places you haven’t seen yet. When Mercedes launched their EQS electric car we were embedded there. Wherever games are played, Tetris will be.

GamesBeat: What do you see in the future for the Tetris Company?

Rogers: Tetris has withstood time for decades. It’s a game that will continue on like chess has, like many sports have. We don’t see it as a one-and-done type of thing. It comes back to being the perfect game. We don’t want to mess with that.