Tetris Returns To Android and iOS After EA's Version Shuts Down (theverge.com) 27
Just days after EA announced that its mobile Tetris games will shut down on April 21st, new Tetris developer N3twork released an officially licensed version of the popular puzzle game for both Android and iOS. From a report: The new N3twork app isn't the 100-player Tetris Royale app that the developer is also working on; rather, it's an extremely basic mobile Tetris game. "We're launching Tetris with a traditional solo gameplay mode, but we want fans to know that we've got so much more in store for them, and this is just the foundation of an incredible Tetris app experience we're building at N3twork," commented CEO Neil Young. Unlike EA's old app, there's a single mode (for classic Tetris) and a handful of alternative skins. There are also ads, although a single-time $4.99 purchase will remove those. It's not exactly a groundbreaking iteration of the series, but if you just want to play some Tetris on your commute, it'll get the job done.
EA Tetris (Score:5, Insightful)
Would you like to buy 10x Straight Pieces for 50 gems? (Gems only sold through EA in chunks of 49 for $4.99).
But for today only, 33% off!
Without buttons (Score:2)
Without physical buttons it seems like a poor way to play.
Also, slashvertisement.
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I have a cheap portable media player. It has no network connectivity, but it does have Tetris. However, I don't play it because it only has physical buttons, and it would drastically shorten the life of the buttons to play games on them.
Touch screens are why it makes sense to play games on mobile devices.
(You can use USB or BT buttons if you want, without ruining your device)
What a nonsensical argument. (Score:2)
You are using an unsuitable device as a straw man to horribly misjudge an entire category as an argument for why another category is better.
No, your media player's buttons are not designed for games.
Game input devices' buttons are. Mash them for two decades, and they are still fine.
Touchscreens are why games on mobile are so brutally cumbersome.
If you disagree, you never held a gamepad.
Or a joystick. Or even just a mouse and keyboard.
Why the hell aren't there real buttons on the back of every smartphone?
Sha
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Playing Tetris without buttons is as dumb as playing a FPS without a mouse.
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I've played the same FPSes on console and desktop and the difference is not just astounding, but hilarious. All of the developers know it, too, which is why they don't mix multiplayer from both. Mouse users will own gamepad users every time.
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It seems almost like the console uses would buy a mouse if it was true. Maybe there is some other difference between the game versions.
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Most console FPSes do not support mice, because the console manufacturers discourage it. They don't want people to realize that a console is just a shitty PC.
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the console manufacturers discourage it
That's probably why they're third party.
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I remember in 1998 a woman I was dating made the exact same claim; a mouse gives a huge advantage.
Then I showed her my "keyboard macro" settings and she laughed at me for being such a nerd. But she likes nerds, so it was a good thing.
But Tetris is no different with a touchscreen than with physical buttons if you have good dexterity. If you poor dexterity I can see it mattering. For people who get fairly high scores though, it is going to be the same.
ownership of ideas stifles culture (Score:1)
Let my get this straight - there is an official "licensed" version of a primitive video game developed in the early 1980s by a researcher working for the fucking Soviet Union? For realz?
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Well, it depends on if you let them say it is. (Score:2)
All rules in human society are based on somebody declaring it, and everybody letting him.
Which, I think, only works on the backs of the indifferent zombie people. Those who stifle any attempt by you to change anything, by saying "What can *we* alone do?". When we wouldn't be alone in the first place, if they didn't say that to refuse helping!
What still stumps me, is how some people *do* manage just change things. Is it just getting into a position where you can declare things, and nothing else?
(Because I th
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the url is still "soviet union"
http://tetris.su/ [tetris.su]
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and he now owns 50% of the company that has the rights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Here is an excellent video on the creation and licensing of Tetris. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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AFAIK said researcher gained the rights to Tetris 10-15 years ago, so yes.
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Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
EA actually made a version of Tetris that won't work without phoning home to their servers. I am both amazed and appalled.
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It's not that amazing, but it's still sad. Most mobile games nowadays have things like leaderboards, in-app purchases, etc... and banner ads of course... and it's very unlikely that the developers were given extra time to build the game so that the single-player mode still worked after the game stopped being profitable enough for the company to keep those services alive.
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None of which makes it necessary that the game fail to work when it's not connected, only that those function don't work when the game is not connected. Of course, EA had no interest in having the game work when it was not connected.
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There are a lot of reasons why a company would build a solo game that can't function when it's disconnected. But the simplest one is just that programming is expensive, and nobody is going to pay developers for the extra time it takes to make sure the game still works after the company is done supporting it. If a game has any online features like leaderboards, in-app-purchaes, banner ads, etc, then it gets a lot more expensive to make sure it all still works when those services are offline, especially consi
And it WILL be milked to death. (Score:2)
For profit!
Then resurrected.
And milked to death again.
For all eternity.
While innovative ideas catch dust in drawers.
Until everything you loved, has been turned into a monster. That whispers "kill meee!".
Gee whizz, uncle Walt, imaginary property sure protects innovation!
This is good, but (Score:3)
This is good to see, but aren't there like a billion FOSS clones that do the same job by now?
In before Tetris v. FSF (Score:2)
Until The Tetris Company uses the precedent in Tetris v. Xio (2012) to go after Emacs M-x tetris [gnu.org] and the rest of the free clones. Alexey Pajitnov, developer of the first version of Tetris and co-founder of The Tetris Company, claimed in 2008 that "Free Software should have never existed" [slashdot.org] because it "destroys the market."