What Happened To Tetris' Alexey Pajitnov (That The Movie Doesn't Tell You)
Though AppleTV+'s Tetris reveals what happened to the game's creator, Alexey Pajitnov, after the movie, a lot of details were still left out.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Tetris.Tetris follows the true story of the 1980s bidding war of the titular video game, but it doesn't fully explain what happened to the game's creator, Alexey Pajitnov, after the film's events. The Russian video game had a surprisingly eventful introduction into the world outside of the U.S.S.R., as the rights belonged to the state because Soviet Union citizens weren't allowed to profit off of their intellectual property. That led to British newspaper tycoons, Nintendo, and American opportunists all vying for licensing rights outside of the Soviet Union, but it also led to a fruitful relationship between Pajitnov and Dutch-American video game developer Henk Rogers.
The ending of Tetris sees Alexey finally leave the Soviet Union for San Francisco and reunite with Henk, who helped arrange his move to the U.S. It then cuts to a photo of the real-life Alexey and Hank in Moscow together in 1989, and the caption, "Henk and Alexey went on to form The Tetris Company." While that's completely true, it didn't happen immediately after the movie's events. Tetris has been criticized for taking way too many creative liberties with the source material, and the two video game developers' reunion wasn't quite as smooth of a transition as the film has audiences believe.
Alexey Pajitnov Moved To The U.S. Before Helping Found The Tetris Company
The real-life Alexey Pajitnov did move to the U.S. in 1991, two years after the movie's events, but Alexey never moved to San Francisco. Instead, the Tetris creator moved to Seattle in 1991 with the help of Rogers. However, Pajitnove still couldn't make any money off Tetris, as the original contract explained that he couldn't profit from the video game until 1996. But the five years in the interim still saw Pajitnov making use of his move to the U.S., as he worked for Rogers' video game company, Bullet-Proof Software. This allowed him to make puzzle games and earn a living from them.
Pajitnov created El-Fish, an aquarium simulator at this time, which wasn't anywhere near as successful as Tetris but was more of a software experiment than anything. He also created Knight Moves, which cemented him as the greatest puzzle game designer of his time. However, when Pajitnov was finally able to make money from Tetris in 1996, that's when he and Rogers founded The Tetris Company together. With the company, Pajitnov and Rogers turned the small puzzle game into a billion-dollar empire. In the same year, he was also named the fourth most influential games developer of all time (via Game Spot).
What Is Alexey Pajitnov Doing Now?
Though Tetris' changes are unnecessary, the movie's final words about Pajitnov aren't wrong, as the developer created The Tetris Company, and that's mostly what he's stuck to. Pajitnov has worked hard to protect the Tetris brand and build upon the original game with ridiculously addictive spin-offs and expand onto more consoles and even cell phones. Pajitnov's most recent comments have been about Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. The developer noted, "his hateful regime will fall down and the normal peaceful way of living will be restored in Ukraine and, hopefully in Russia" (via Venture Beat), which, ironically, has significant parallels to the 1989 Soviet Union in Tetris.
Sources: Game Spot, Venture Beat
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