A report from the Hawaii-based Pacific Business News has shed new light on plans for long-time Tetris license business manager Henk Rogers, following his company Blue Lava Wireless' early 2005 acquisition by mobile firm Jamdat, and Jamdat's subsequent late 2005 acquisition by Electronic Arts, deals that made Rogers $176.5 million in cash and stock.
Rogers was instrumental in bringing Tetris to the West during the late 1980s with his company Bullet Proof Software, when it became a crucial title for Nintendo's Game Boy in its formative years. Rogers was also the co-founder of master license-holder firm The Tetris Company with Tetris creator Alexey Pazhitnov.
Though Jamdat's (and now EA's) acquisition of Blue Lava has meant that the long-term mobile rights to Tetris are now held by EA, Rogers still helps control rights to the seminal puzzle game, and is therefore founding Tetris Online Inc. with an industry heavyweight and longtime friend, former Nintendo of America President Minoru Arakawa.
The subscription website will have a monthly fee of around $3, according to the Pacific Business News report, and will present a series of casual Web browser game titles, including Tetris, aimed at the mass market. It will likely compete with services such as EA's Pogo.com for PC casual gamers.
The report also mentioned two other companies Rogers is currently involved in starting - Rogers Hashimoto Sato Kawai, which appears to be concentrating on online avatar creation for casual games, as well as a digital photo posting and storage company, Blue Lava Technologies.
