How Tetris became playable on a McNugget and in a Slurpee

40 years and the Tetris phenomenon shows no signs of slowing

Aug 06, 2024

Tetris is everywhere.

From the esoteric (the Soviet Union's Electronika 60 in 1985) to the mainstream (the Nintendo Switch) to the downright bizarre (faux 7-Eleven Slurpee cups and plastic McDonald's nuggets), Tetris isn't just a long-lived, often-played game, its platforms for play are seemingly omnipresent.

Where gamers of a certain age are fond of ironically asking if a new piece of electronics can run Doom, Tetris is really the game that seems to find its way on all platforms, sometimes even creating new platforms upon which to expand its form-fitting geometric reach.

But that Tetris ubiquity isn't happening by chance; it's powered by The Tetris Company and its CEO, Maya Rogers.

And it's a full-time job.

"Just like in Tetris, I love strategizing and putting pieces together to bring order out of chaos," Rogers told me in a recent interview. "It's been a privilege to lead Tetris and discover innovative ways to keep the game relevant for both current fans and future audiences."

From Tetrominoes to Tetris

Tetris started life back in the mid-80s through the innovative design of Alexey Pajitnov, who was working at the Soviet Academy of Sciences as a researcher. He told me in a recent interview that he always loved puzzles, especially Pentominoes, a board game he used to play as a child. In that game, players had to place all the pieces—which came in a dozen unique shapes of five squares—back into the rectangular box that carried them.

"I planned to make a computer game using this set, but I decided to use Tetriminoes instead because there are only seven unique shapes made of four squares, making the game easier and more enjoyable to play in 'real-time,'" he said.

The game's first version was developed on the Electronika 60 computer, a clone of the U.S. mini-machine PDP11. While the Electronika 60 was used mainly for scientific research, Pajitnov was interested in developing a two-player version of a Pentominoes game on the computer.

"Making games on a computer at that time was considered unthinkable, maybe even crazy, but I thought otherwise," he said. "Computers were not used for fun, like games, only for scientific research. The E60 also had many limitations, such as no graphics, so I ultimately figured out how to utilize ASCII symbols and routines to compose the shapes and make them move and rotate. Although I didn't achieve a two-player game at that time, the single-player version of Tetris was quite enjoyable, so that's how the Tetris game came to be."

Henk Rogers, who brought Tetris to the Game Boy and ultimately founded The Tetris Company with Pajitnov, said the first playable prototype of the game was created on June 6, 1984, which the company celebrates as Tetris's birthdate.

"It was a historic moment in time that we commemorate every year with World Tetris Day," he said.

Henk Rogers believes Tetris made the leap from a puzzle game to a cultural phenomenon because—in part—it was bundled with the incredibly successful Nintendo Game Boy starting in 1989.

"The game's simple yet addictive gameplay, combined with the portability of the Nintendo Game Boy, catapulted it into a global sensation," he said. "By the early 1990s, Tetris was one of the most recognized and beloved video games worldwide, and we've worked very hard since then and fully intend to keep working hard to keep the Tetris brand relevant for the rest of time.

"Tetris transcends gender, age, nationality, and culture—it's pure geometry. No matter where you come from, the experience is universal. Its timeless nature ensures it never goes out of style."

Tetris McNugget, Slurpee Tetris

Testris' popularity in the '80s didn't automatically translate to an everlasting hit; that required the effort of The Tetris Company, now led by Maya Rogers, Henk Rogers' daughter, who spends her days focused on the game and its ever-dropping, rotatable pieces.

"Using today as an example, my day included a meeting with our mobile partner PlayStudios to talk about our Tetris mobile app portfolio as well as the roadmap of games in development," she told me recently. "We then had a working lunch with my exec team to debrief on 40th-anniversary campaigns, including collabs with the American Red Cross, 7-Eleven, Minecraft, and Supreme, and a multi-weekend livestream event we're co-hosting with Enhance (the creators of Tetris Effect) called Tetris Block Party. The back half of the day was focused on strategy and execution for the remainder of this year and 2025 planning."

This year may feel exceptionally packed with Tetris because it marks 40 years since the prototype was created in the Soviet Union. Over the past year or so, there have been a number of intriguing—and sometimes off-the-wall—promotions.

Take, for instance, the limited release of the game in China, which was playable on a bright orange piece of plastic molded to look like an oversized Chicken McNugget. The deal came about after a McDonald's agent in China approached the company about the idea.

"After a little back-and-forth, we were delighted to reach an agreement to be part of this incredibly fun and unique McDonald's promotion," Maya Rogers said. "I thought it was a wild idea at first, but once I actually saw it come to life, I was super excited. What's not to like about a playable Chicken McNugget? In fact, last year, I attended a gaming dinner in Saudi Arabia, and the two people who sat beside me had procured the playable McNugget via eBay, which goes to show what a phenomenon it really was."

Indeed, while they don't fetch a high price on eBay, they sell quickly there. That's likely because the plastic Tetris McNugget was released as part of a special celebration for China's Children's Day and the 40th Anniversary of the McNugget. It was packaged with Happy Meals, but only 500,000 of them were made, and they were only available in China.

"Because of the response from fans, we'd love to see it available for the rest of the world to enjoy," Rogers added. "Let's just say we're working on finding a way."

More recently, The Tetris Company teamed up with 7-Eleven to create a unique device that looks like a Slurpee in a cup but lights up and plays the game. That collaboration aimed to increase store visits and use of the store's app by celebrating Tetris' 40th Anniversary.

"While our team was brainstorming with 7-Eleven's agency, we thought: What kind of product would have a 'Wow' factor similar to the Tetris Chicken McNugget, which was really like lightning in a bottle?" she said. Our head of Consumer Products did a rough mockup of a Tetris handheld shaped like a Slurpee drink, and we were like,' This is awesome!' In the US, it was primarily only available via sweepstakes, so it really created a FOMO situation."

While the result is spectacular to witness—and play—in person, one of the other ideas may have been a bit more extraordinary.

"There was an idea to do a version that could hold an actual Slurpee, but based on cost and industrial design challenges, it didn't go beyond the idea phase," Maya Rogers said.

While Tetris McNuggets and Slurpee cups may seem bizarre, they're not what Maya Rogers thinks are the most unusual official versions of the game.

"In terms of merchandise, in 2018, we collaborated with Product Japan, which had Japanese artisans create beautiful traditional Japanese craft items using Tetris (Nihon Kogei)," she said. They were one-of-a-kind products, and I have them displayed in my office—including things like bamboo hand-painted Tetris bento boxes, Tetrimino block building blocks using traditional Japanese wood and lacquer, and fans."

Bringing Joy

Ensuring Tetris lives on through inventive form factors and even new takes on the traditional gameplay while not allowing the brand to get too watered down can be challenging. To help, The Tetris Company uses some basic guidelines and philosophies to ensure a pitch is a good match to be one of the more than 90 licensees or promotional partners.

"We ask: does this align with our current players and future players?" Rogers said. "Does this bring joy? Is it the right fit? We carefully review numerous proposals and only pursue those that genuinely excite us because when the final product emerges, we want to ensure that we would want to gift it, share it on social, or want it for ourselves! Ultimately, we prioritize collaborations that add value and fun to the Tetris brand, as these are the partnerships that truly resonate with our audience and enhance the Tetris experience. And sometimes, it also means that we take risks, but the brand and our core values are always in the forefront of our decisions."

Once a deal is sealed, The Tetris Company shares precise guidelines for a company to follow for the final creation to be greenlit.

That usually includes making sure they use the iconic seven Tetriminos and traditional play elements. Though, Rogers added, the company also appreciates partners who push creative boundaries.

"Without traditional characters, we offer more freedom, allowing the brand to transcend its gaming roots," she said. "For example, last year, we collaborated with Stumble Guys and Minecraft, where we were able to create experiences using games that were not Tetris to create new ways to play. Puyo Puyo Tetris was another example where we took two iconic puzzle games in the same universe to play against and with one another. It's always so fun to figure out how we can bring together all of the parts of the game that make it so iconic and recognizable worldwide. The most successful partnerships are those that evoke the same joy and excitement people feel when playing Tetris."

In the case of odd hardware for playing Tetris, the company wants to ensure that the system's form factor and controls don't overly restrict gameplay.

Take, for instance, the tiny screen on that plastic McNugget. It plays a traditional Marathon mode of the game, where the objective is to clear 150 lines, but with some tweaks.

"The playfield, known as the Matrix, is slightly smaller than usual," she said. "Typically, the Matrix measures 10 squares wide and 20 squares tall. However, to accommodate smaller devices, the Matrix in this version is reduced to 9 squares wide and 13 squares tall."

History stacks

Today, more than 255 Tetris games have been officially released. They're played in more than 200 countries, translated into more than 50 languages, and released on more than 50 platforms.

While more than 35 million copies of the game were sold for the original Nintendo Game Boy, more than 520 million copies of Tetris have been sold worldwide. And there are 615 million downloads of Tetris on mobile devices alone.

That's a lot of numbers to say what Pajitnov feels every day when he thinks back on his accomplishments.

"Forty years later, I'm still amazed that my game is loved by so many people," Pajitnov said. "It makes me very happy to think about people having fun with it, and I'm very proud of this accomplishment. I also feel very lucky because so many other great games have come and gone, but Tetris continues to be relevant. It's hours and hours of time people spend on my game, but these are very happy hours, and I am proud of that."

Pajitnov's current favorite flavor of Tetris is Tetris on a PC with a keyboard, with the Nintendo Game Boy version "nearest to his heart."

Maya Rogers, who grew up with Tetris, first playing it on a Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System and now being able to watch the movie adaptation of its creation, says today she sees the joy in her children's eyes when they play the game.

"Tetris truly is an evergreen game, and I would like to thank Alexey Pajitnov for creating this masterpiece," she said. "I know he doesn't need to hear it from me, but I'll keep saying it!"