During E3, IndustryGamers had the pleasure of sitting down with the man who forever changed the face of gaming with his puzzle title Tetris. Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris back in 1984 at the Academy of Science in Russia, and he and his partner Henk Rogers of Blue Planet Software (who helped spread Tetris across the world on Game Boy in 1988) recently celebrated the game's 25th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long, but even so, Tetris remains one of the most played and most appealing games ever created. It's sold a whopping 125 million copies (digital and retail) to date, and the game continues to resonate with all demographics; it's certainly benefited from the rise of mobile and casual gaming in recent years.
Interestingly, the game started out with 12 different block shapes, but Pajitnov said that got too complicated so he narrowed it down to just four blocks. Pajitnov commented that he really is amazed that his game took off the way it did. "I realized that it was a good game, but I never imagined that it would get this big," he said.
