Even Tetris players don’t know what the future holds for competitive Tetris

When you think of esports, Tetris likely doesn’t come to mind. Let alone NES Tetris played on original hardware. Yet, this weekend at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo a new Classic Tetris World Champion (CTWC) will be crowned, and it’ll likely be the most hotly contested, highest-viewed tournament in the game’s almost 35-year history.

Classic Tetris has seen an explosion of interest in the last few years but it’s fast approaching a crossroads. It needs to either professionalize or accept its destiny as a curious, if cozy, corner of the gaming world.

The trouble is, even the top players aren’t sure a professional league is realistic. “Do I think this could become a viable esport? Absolutely not.” Fractal161, a competitor with a very real chance of winning this weekend’s World Championships, told Engadget.

The annual event in Portland remains the game’s most prestigious tournament, but for the rest of the year, Classic Tetris fans can be found at CTM – Classic Tetris Monthly – a more informal, but arguably more important competition for the game.

“CTM was created by a streamer called Friday Witch in December 2017, and it was more just a casual kind of community thing.” Keith “vandweller” Didion, CTM’s current organizer and perennial host told Engadget. He took over the tournament organization in October 2018.

Since then, CTM has gone from barely scraping together enough players for a bracket, to hundreds of players competing in multiple skill levels every single month. The original concept was one 16-player tournament, but that meant anyone that wasn’t good enough would never get to play. “When I took it over my kind of pledge to the community was everybody who submitted a qualifier will get to play” Didion said.

Both CTWC and CTM offer prize pools but they are modest in comparison to the seven-figure worlds of something like Fortnite. If you win CTWC outright, you’ll take home $3,000 with the rest of the $10,000 purse being divided between the next 15 placements. CTM, on the other hand, typically rewards the top eight placements, but the purse is entirely user contributed, so it varies month to month. Typically the pool reaches around $3,500 with half that going to the overall winner.

“I think for a lot of top players, since we’re all kids, we see this as a lot of money. Regardless of whatever it ends up being.” Fractal added. This may be so, but once these players are old enough to start having to pay their own rent or insurance premiums, that perspective is likely to change.

The fact that CTM’s purse relies on donations might present a problem longer term: “We have someone called ShallBeSatisfied that contributes $1,000 – $2,000 in the month. So you have this other person dogwatchingtetris, the same thing there. This individual ScottGray76, he contributes a good amount on a monthly basis.” Didion said. In short, the financial incentive of playing in CTM lies broadly in the hands of a few individuals.

Right now, CTM effectively runs at a loss. Didion certainly doesn’t pay himself. There is some income from Twitch and YouTube but that’s used to pay community members for restreaming games and other contributions they make. “We are starting to explore sponsorships and things like that. But I’m not very good at it. So I’m trying to bring in people that know more than I do, or are just better at that kind of stuff than me,” he added.

Two pro Tetris players compete on Twitch.
Classic Monthly Tetris

As Didion explains, so far there’s only been one from an enthusiastic fan who reached out asking if they could sponsor last month’s tournament for $100. “Sure. Let’s do it. I’m excited by that just because that’s how I want the sponsorships to be, like something I care about, or people in our community.”

Didion obviously cares deeply about the community he’s built and competitive NES Tetris generally. Even his players think he should be more open to making it profitable. “He says that he runs this at a loss and that’s just ridiculous to me.” Fractal said. “I think that he is entitled to a share of the prize pool, if he desired, this is standard for lots of tournaments.”

This is where the next, slightly more delicate issue comes in. CTWC aims for absolute authenticity: All games are played in person (bar the pandemic years) on original NES consoles plugged into CRT televisions. The game is played exactly how it was the day it launched.

With CTM, Didion’s unwavering commitment to making the game accessible means he doesn’t have the luxury of making sure everyone has their own NES and CRT and copy of the game. The tournament happens exclusively online, so he has to allow competitors to play with what they have. Standardizing would be a massive expense.

What’s more, In 1989, when NES Tetris was released, level 29 was most likely designed to be the end of the game. The speed increases so much it’s unplayable earning it the name “killscreen.” Today’s players have mastered techniques to carry on well past level 29 and that requires light modifications to the game for the score to display correctly as the original never expected anyone to accumulate more than 999,999 and thus it cannot display a number higher than that.

Likewise, CTM is where many world records are broken. With players now able to go on almost indefinitely, and new records harder to achieve, not all spectators are enjoying the marathon matches according to Fractal. “I’ve heard a lot of testimonials about how they don’t really watch the killscreen anymore because it’s just not fun. I think it’s different when you catch it live personally.” Didion agrees. “I think for this esport to grow I don’t think that we can continue to have endless chase downs, post killscreen.”

With the game effectively playable forever, matches have gone from a place where records are broken to sometimes, feeling like a broken record. To address this, and make matches more exciting, CTM has modified the game for its highest bracket so that at level 49 it doubles in speed – something known as “double killscreen.”

Other small changes have been added too. Early matches were really just two people playing Tetris at the same time, with the victor being whoever recorded the highest score. More recently, CTM has added the ability for games to use the same random number “seed.” This ensures both players get the exact same pieces in the same order making it a true like-for-like showdown.

It’s these modifications that could pose the real issue for CTM’s growth as an esport. The use of emulators generally has always been something of a legal gray area when using copyrighted games. Modifying and distributing ROMs is a slightly darker shade of gray (no money is changing hands for the ROMs in CTM). Nintendo is famously aggressive against any fan versions of its games being made available online, but ironically, the bigger barrier might be The Tetris Company itself.

Formed by Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris, in 1996, the Tetris Company holds the worldwide rights to both the game and the brand. Didion described the company’s relationship with the community as “mostly benign neglect,” while Fractal is said it had a history of “somewhat aggressive takedowns.” The Tetris Company, for its part, is a major sponsor of CTWC and is actively encouraging new ways to play the game via Tetris Effect Connected on modern consoles.

Ironically, a lot of the challenges competitive NES Tetris faces – clunky old hardware, glitches in the game and a true online multiplayer mode are theoretically solved by Tetris Effect Connected’s Classic Score Attack mode. It’s essentially a modern yet faithful reproduction of NES Tetris playable on Xbox and PC. It supports native two-player battle modes and was even developed with a legendary player from the Classic Tetris scene – Greentea.

I asked Fractal why players don’t migrate over to the “official” version that could still be used for CTM competitions. “mainly we’re all comfortable with the status quo, so there’s no big incentive to change,” he told me over Discord. “and the negative feedback loop of nobody wanting to play because there’s nobody to play against.”

In many ways, this sums up the paradox neatly. Authenticity appears to be crucial to the lure of the game. Despite some practical concessions from CTM to make NES Tetris more accessible and interesting to watch, the original game with all its hidden quirks and secrets is as much a part of it as the scoring and gameplay is.

But this need for authenticity is also what’s preventing Classic NES Tetris from being able to grow into itself as an evolving esport. CTM’s loyal host does see some ways around this. “There could be a team element to it in the future. If we were to continue, and this would allow the teams to market themselves or their franchises as owners of these teams, I don’t know.”

He had toyed with building “characters” around the players, similar to other sports. “One of the problems is everybody’s so young, so they haven’t been around long enough to have stories you’re just like, ‘Oh, I was born in Michigan and now I’m 16.’ Okay, all right, great.” But it’s clear that whatever happens next and however it evolves, Didion will likely be the person making it happen.

Right now, the community CTM has created appears to be far more special and interesting to everyone involved than any financial incentive. It’s hard not to get the feeling that it’s less about preserving the integrity of NES Tetris, as it is about keeping this collaborative, genuinely connected community as it is, without letting the pressures of professional play or the looming specter of Mountain Dew-style sponsorships from taking that away.

Or in Fractal’s case, good friends and questionable fried chicken is all you need. “I’m not going to CTWC to win the prize pool. I’m going to hang out with a bunch of people that I only know online. And go to Raising Cane’s with like a bunch of people who really love Raising Cane’s for some reason.”

Take-Two is shutting down the developer behind the mobile hit ‘Two Dots’

Rockstar, Zynga and 2K owner Take-Two Interactive is shutting down Playdots, the New York-based studio behind the popular mobile game Two Dots, Bloomberg has reported. Sixty-five employees will lose their jobs, the company confirmed to Bloomberg. …

Microsoft accuses UK regulator of adopting Sony’s complaints in Activision probe

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard will have to gain approval from various regulators around the world before the deal can go through, including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA, which first announced its investigation in July, published a summary of its initial probe in September and recommended a more in-depth inquiry. As Ars Technica notes, a Phase 2 investigation could end up prohibiting a merger or requiring the entities involved to sell parts of a company. Now, shortly after the CMA published the full text (PDF) of its decision, Microsoft released a scathing response (PDF), accusing the regulator of relying “on self-serving statements by Sony.”

In its response that it has shared to Ars, the tech giant said the CMA’s decision was rooted in the concern that Activision’s catalogue of games, specifically the Call of Duty franchise, will allow Xbox to “foreclose its competitors.” Microsoft called that concern “misplaced,” arguing that the CMA is overstating the importance of Activision Blizzard’s games when it comes to competition in the space. It also said that it plans to make Call of Duty more accessible by adding Activision’s titles to its Game Pass subscription service. 

Sony did not welcome the idea of this “increased competition,” the company said, stressing that its rival “protect[s] its revenues” by not making newly released games available through PlayStation Plus. Microsoft also said that there’s no basis for the idea that making Call of Duty available on Game Pass would make people more likely to buy an Xbox console. The company said CoD games would also be available for purchase on PlayStation and buying them would be cheaper than buying an Xbox for Game Pass access.

The CMA has adopted Sony’s complaints “without the appropriate level of critical review,” Microsoft continued. It added: “The suggestion that the incumbent market leader, with clear and enduring market power, could be foreclosed by the third largest provider as a result of losing access to one title is not credible.” Microsoft wrote in its response that it’s looking forward to working with the CMA through Phase 2, and it sounds like it’s determined to make the regulator understand the benefits of the deal. 

As for Sony, a spokesperson repeated its stance in a statement sent to Reuters, calling the deal “bad for competition, bad for the gaming industry and bad for gamers themselves.” Microsoft’s acquisition would give the Xbox ecosystem “a unique combination of tech and content,” they said, which in turn would give the tech giant a dominant position in gaming that would have “devastating consequences for consumers, independent developers, and Sony itself.”

Two unreleased and ‘never digitized’ NES games are up for auction on eBay

Two extremely rare “unreleased, one-of-a-kind, never-digitized” Nintendo NES games have appeared on eBay, according to a tweet from the Video Game History Foundation’s Frank Cifaldi, seen by Kotaku. One of those, called Battlefields of Napoleon, was only ever released in Japan. The other is a cartridge from Rare, and appears to be the demo of one of the few games ever developed for the Nintendo Power Glove.

According to the eBay listing for Battlefields of Napoleon, the game was “rescued from a dumpster after The Learning Company acquired Brøderbund in 1998 and subsequently discarded most of the historical assets.” The items in the lot include a WATA certified prototype on a development board and two additional CHR ROMs. It also includes the original packaging design. 

In fact, the ROMs, boards and packaging were likely prepared for for final production, but it was never released in English for some reason. “It comes with the actual files that would be mailed to Nintendo for printing! Using these we can make perfect digital versions,” Cifaldi said in a tweet. Four more days of bidding remain, but it’s already selling for $5,700. 

Since Napolean is WATA graded, the code has already been dumped for review, so technically “never digitized” isn’t quite accurate. As Cifaldi notes, though, the code can be released by whoever buys it. “I can’t put it online unless a new owner allows it, and if that new owner is us [the Video Game History Foundation], we will obviously allow it,” he said. To see how this (extremely complicated) game worked, check this YouTube video from RndStranger.

The other is labelled “CES SAMPLE: Please return to RARE COIN-IT INC.” According to the eBay auction on this one, it’s a “1-level prototype demo of game called ‘Scanner’ which was designed for the Mattel Power Glove” by Rare, the developer that built numerous titles for Nintendo. The listing goes on to say that the seller’s husband was the game designer, adding that it was tested in a retail environment and is playable. The auction is currently at $6,000 with 40 hours of bidding left.

Cifaldi is attempting to purchase these for Video Game History Foundation nonprofit dedicated to preserving video games for future generations. However, he said that the organization needs some help in acquiring these as they’re bound to fetch high prices. If you’d like to chip in to help them acquire these fun and historically important titles, Cifaldi notes that his DMs are open on his Twitter account.

CD Projekt Red is working on a ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ follow-up and several new Witcher games

CD Projekt Red may be much busier than you expect. The developer has shared a long-term roadmap that elaborates and expands on its plans. To start, a project codenamed “Orion” is effectively a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 that will “further develop the potential” of the sci-fi franchise. It’s in development by CDPR’s teams in Boston and Vancouver.

And while it’s no secret that there’s a new Unreal Engine 5-based The Witcher game in the works (it entered pre-production this spring), it’s really just the start of a new trilogy. You might not have to wait long to see the story reach its conclusion, either. CDPR hopes to release all three games within a six-year span, with the first (codenamed “Polaris”) serving as a technology foundation for the remaining two.

Other titles include “Sirius,” a The Witcher spinoff with solo and multiplayer elements aimed at a “broader audience.” It’s developed by The Flame and the Flood studio The Molasses Flood. Another project, “Canis Majoris,” is a “full-fledged” Witcher universe game built by an outside developer using UE5. And no, CDPR won’t be stuck making Cyberpunk and Witcher games for all eternity. “Hadar” will be new, from-scratch universe. It’s still in the extremely early stages of development (conceptual work only began in 2021), so it’s likely years away.

Regardless of what you play, you should expect online gameplay to become a staple feature. In its roadmap presentation, CDPR said “most” of its new games will have a multiplayer component. The company was shy on what this will entail.

CDPR isn’t shy about the reasons for the expansion. The wider catalog and cooperation with outside developers will help it “reach new consumers” while maintaining three lasting franchises. If all goes well, a producer best known for rare, single player-focused releases will offer a steady stream of games that help it become more of a household name akin to Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft — in size, if hopefully not in quality.

Google reportedly canceled a Stadia-exclusive follow-up to ‘Death Stranding’

One of the major problems that worked against Stadia from the jump was the fact that Google didn’t secure blockbuster exclusives for the cloud gaming service, which it will shut down in January. Sure, people were able to play the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2,Cyberpunk 2077 and Destiny 2 on the platform, but those are all available elsewhere. As it turns out, Google may have spurned the chance to have an exclusive title from one of the biggest names in gaming.

According to 9to5 Google, at one point Hideo Kojima was working on a Stadia-only follow-up to Death Stranding, which debuted on PlayStation in 2019 and later arrived on PC. Death Stranding has some asynchronous multiplayer elements. Other players might be able to use ladders, roads and other items that you place in the world, for instance. However, the planned follow-up was said to be a fully single-player game, which might have been the reason why Google canceled the project.

According to the report, Google canned the game, which was described as an episodic horror title, after seeing the first mockups in 2020. Stadia vice-president and general manager Phil Harrison is said to have made the final decision to kill the project. For what it’s worth, in a May 2020 interview, Kojima claimed one of his projects had recently been canceled. 

Google vice president and general manager Phil Harrison speaks during a Google keynote address announcing a new video gaming streaming service named Stadia that attempts to capitalize on the company's cloud technology and global network of data centers, at the Gaming Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Stephen Lam / reuters

Google reportedly abandoned the project in the belief that there wasn’t a market for single-player games anymore. Of note, CD Projekt Red just announced that Cyberpunk 2077 (which, again, was released on Stadia) has now sold 20 million copies, less than two years after its eventfuldebut. By mid-2021, Death Stranding itself had sold more than 5 million copies.

The lack of big exclusives is far from the only issue that led to Stadia’s downfall. A questionable business model and a seemingly rushed rollout didn’t help, and nor did Google’s reputation for ruthlessly killing off its own products. Even though Stadia has excellent game streaming tech and some passionate fans, it never took off as Google hoped. The company will shut down the platform on January 18th and issue refunds for all hardware and software purchases (except for Pro subscriptions). Ubisoft is working on a way to give people who bought its games on Stadia access to PC versions.

The news of Stadia’s demise blindsided developers, from giants like Destiny 2 studio Bungie to indie studios whose titles were supposed to hit the now-closed Stadia store in the coming weeks. As Axios notes, it isn’t clear whether Google has a broad plan to reimburse studios for costs they expected to recoup after launching their games on Stadia. There are concerns about what Stadia’s closure means for game preservation too. While Google didn’t secure AAA exclusives, Stadia has some indie games that aren’t available elsewhere.

Detail of hands holding a Google Stadia video game controller, taken on November 27, 2019. (Photo by Olly Curtis/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Future Publishing via Getty Images

Meanwhile, some are calling on Google to unlock the Stadia Controller’s Bluetooth functions. The argument is that, if people can more easily use the controller on other platforms, it’s less likely that the gamepad will become e-waste. The controller connects directly to WiFi for Stadia games in order to minimize lag. You can also hook it up to devices with a USB-C cable.

As for Kojima, he has a Death Stranding sequel in the works, according to the game’s star, Norman Reedus. It also emerged in June that Kojima has teamed up with Xbox Game Studios for his next title. That game will be powered by Microsoft’s cloud technology.

Razer and Verizon tease a 5G gaming handheld that can play games locally

Razer, Qualcomm and Verizon are working together on a 5G gaming handheld. The carrier teased the Razer Edge 5G at Mobile World Congress Las Vegas. Details on the device are sparse, but what we do know is that it will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon G3x Gen 1. Announced in December, the chipset features an Adreno GPU capable of running Android games at 144 frames per second, with support for 10-bit HDR built-in. Additionally, it offers both 5G and WiFi 6E connectivity courtesy of the company’s FastConnect 6900 system.

At the end of last year, Qualcomm and Razer released a Developer Kit that was designed as a showcase of the G3x’s capabilities. The device featured a 120Hz, 6.65-inch OLED display, four-way speakers and built-in controls. If we had to take a guess, the Razer Edge 5G will hew closely to that prototype. In the teaser it shared today, Razer showed off enough of the Edge 5G to reveal it will feature a design that’s a tad more refined than the last Razer device to bear Edge branding.

According to Verizon, the Android handheld can play games locally, in addition to streaming them from the cloud and consoles. That puts the Razer Edge 5G in an interesting spot between Logitech’s G Cloud Gaming Handheld and Valve’s Steam Deck. The former is a dedicated cloud gaming device and costs $350, a hefty price for its limited capabilities. The Steam Deck is more expensive but can run games like Elden Ring, Stray and Hades natively. And if you already own those titles on Steam, you don’t have to pay for them again. What the Steam Deck doesn’t have is 5G connectivity, and that’s something that could make the Razer Edge 5G an interesting option when it’s released. Razer, Qualcomm and Verizon promised to share more information about their collaboration on October 15th at RazerCon.

Netflix is building its own game studio

Netflix is no longer relying exclusively on third-party teams to bolster its game catalog. The streaming giant is forming an in-house game studio in Helsinki, Finland to create “world-class” original games without ads or in-app purchases. While it’s too soon for details of the games themselves, Zynga and EA alumnus Marko Lastikka will serve as director.

Helsinki is a good fit as the home to some of the “best game talent” on the planet, according to Netflix. This includes The Walking Dead mobile developer Next Games (which Netflix bought in March). Netflix has purchased multiple developers, including Boss Fight and Oxenfree creator Night School Studio, but hasn’t built a developer from scratch until now.

You won’t see the first fruits of this internal studio for “years,” Netflix says. Still, this and recent acquisitions show how the company’s gaming strategy is evolving. Where Netflix initially depended on outsiders’ games, including slightly tweaked versions of existing titles, it’s increasingly focused on truly unique projects you won’t find elsewhere. In theory, more people will subscribe to Netflix with the game library in mind.

EA Motive is working on a single-player Iron Man game

EA’s Motive Studio is putting the finishing touches on its solid-looking Dead Space remake, but it’s already looking ahead to other projects. EA announced that Motive has teamed up with Marvel to make an Iron Man game.

Although the title is in early development, the company has teased out a few details. It will be a single-player, third-person, action-adventure game with an original story. The idea is that you’ll be able to “feel what it’s like to truly play as Iron Man,” EA claimed in a statement.

The Motive team working on the project will be led by Olivier Proulx, who was a senior producer on last year’s surprisingly great Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Proulx also worked on the single-player side of Marvel’s Avengers and so won’t be a stranger to Iron Man. “We have a great opportunity to create a new and unique story that we can call our own. Marvel is encouraging us to create something fresh,” Proulx said.

EA said the Iron Man game marks the beginning of its partnership with Marvel as it’s the first of several titles they’ll make together. Rumors suggest one of those is a Black Panther game.