All-New Tetris Game Debuts on App Store, Developed in Partnership With The Tetris Company

Out of curiosity, the first time you went to a bar early in life and paid $5 for your first beer ever, you probably enjoyed it for about a half hour before it was empty. Then when you asked the bar tender for a refill and they said, "That will be another $5", were you raged with anger and said, "I already paid $5, so I want free refills for the rest of my life"?

It's funny how people put a price on things they enjoy. For some, they will pay hundreds or thousands over a span of 4 or 5 years for beer, but if an app they equally enjoy does a one time charge of $5 for the same span of time, they freak out.

It is as simple as durable good versus consumable good.


[URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durable_good[/URL]
[URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumables[/URL]


Until recently, almost all video games were considered durable goods. With the rise of digital media, a long with the bubblegum-like mobile game industry, video games are now becoming more consumable in nature.

It's funny how people put a price on things they enjoy.

If video games were always a consumable good, there probably wouldn't be any complaining, but when people used to be able to buy a video game and continue to use it indefinitely, and now you could buy a game today and tomorrow it could be pulled from the apps store or an iOS update can break the game, this understandably irks people.

So another multi-year agreement, $5 to remove ads, and the need to re-do this all over again in a few years since we won't actually own the game.

I feel I need to respond, and I'm not trying to create a controversy, but just making an observation of something that perplexes me.

Out of curiosity, the first time you went to a bar early in life and paid $5 for your first beer ever, you probably enjoyed it for about a half hour before it was empty. Then when you asked the bar tender for a refill and they said, "That will be another $5", were you raged with anger and said, "I already paid $5, so I want free refills for the rest of my life"?

It's funny how people put a price on things they enjoy. For some, they will pay hundreds or thousands over a span of 4 or 5 years for beer, but if an app they equally enjoy does a one time charge of $5 for the same span of time, they freak out.

I can’t wait for their exclusivity to end so in the future I have the opportunity to buy this game a third time ... pass.

Ah this one looks much better than the EA one!

Meh, at this point I'll just stick with some form of the game that won't expire, like Tetris on NES

The game needs to ping home to start and be able to play, and they are shutting down access. The app will be useless.

Yep, just tested and confirmed that.

They must have added that requirement recently, because I've played a LOT of EA Tetris on the plane in airplane mode and have never had any issues.

It just shows how scummy EA is. They actually WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY to break the game. I deleted it from my phone; it feels dirty just having it installed at this point.

It's sad because they could have set a good example and gone THE OTHER WAY; disable all networking code, remove dependancy on the Internet and release one last update that'll work forever if you keep it installed/install from purchase history.

But no, they're *******s.

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- Tetris is a bad example of everything because Russia's involved and the original is some garbage little ASCII-style game for the Электроника 60 that was the USSR's state property. The (IMO questionable but widely accepted IP) is now being used as a weapon. IMO it shoulda just died with the gameboy... it's not THAT good.

Just because the Soviet Union took ownership of everything their citizens created doesn't make the creation any less valid or awesome. It's a great game that has endured for decades; we just want developers to treat it better.

So another multi-year agreement, $5 to remove ads, and the need to re-do this all over again in a few years since we won't actually own the game.

You honestly think $5 is much for a few years? Dude apps are costing that much per week nowadays.
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Just installed the app.

1) Why do I need to create an unique user name just to try the app? I don’t like when this is the very first screen when launching the app.

2) Look at the attached screenshot. Look how little of the screen is actually used! Some empty screen in the bottom, but A LOT of unused screen space at the top. I’m on a iPhone 11, but it feels like I’m using a iPhone 5.

Games were always a little bit consumable because they're system-specific and development has to end at some point.

This isn't really consumable, as the good isn't ever used up. While new systems are released and old systems are no longer supported, the game is still playable as long as it still works.


While we could argue the definition of "consumable", this statement here is clearly false:

Nobody is taking away the version you already have installed

[URL unfurl="true"]https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ea-retiring-tetris-apps-for-ios-in-april-2020.2220654/[/URL]

Though some apps remain available to play after being pulled from the App Store, it sounds like EA is removing access to the Tetris games entirely.

They are killing off existing installs.
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They actually WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY to break the game.

This is a really crappy thing to do. I wonder if this kill-feature was mentioned in the update notes.

Tetris is really the only action-puzzle style game I've ever enjoyed. I've never really liked the matching-type games, they just don't do it for me. Tetris was the first of this genre, and as far as I'm convinced, it's still the best. I will likely pay $5 for this, because you know what? Computer programmers, game designers, and publishers are doing work, we live in a society where work is paid for, so I don't mind paying for something I enjoy. As others have said, $5 is a beer, or a latte. That last for about 10, 15 minutes or so. If I can get a few years of enjoyment out of this version for $5, I think that's a pretty fair deal.

Well... nobody's forcing you to dump your currently installed version? Alternatively you can buy a gameboy :p

IMO it's basically a Russian scam though.

As a matter of fact, they kind of are forcing us to dump the currently installed version. According to the original story (https://www.macrumors.com/2020/01/21/ea-tetris-ios-retiring-april-2020/), they are going to flip a switch and the game is going to stop working entirely, even on already-installed devices.