Electronic Arts has figured out a way to make peopLe pay indefinitely for the privilege of playing Tetris. A 99-cent version of the classic puzzler just went live on the iOS store but, obviously, you’ll want more than the seven Tetrominoes that buck buys you, right? Right?
Well, good news, there’s now something called the “T-Club,” which is “an elite Tetris fan club.” You can become an “elite Tetris fan” for $US2.99 a month or $US29.99 a year. In addition to your elite Tetris fandom, you get “access to exclusive discounts and content, premium challenges, and a booster to progress their Tetris Rank,” according to an EA statement.
That means, hoo boy, we’ve got a ranking-up dynamic in Tetris at long last. Sigh.
Awnshegh
Friday, December 2, 2011 at 4:55 PMEr – This sounds like a scam. They may try and sell it as a ligitimate service but in the end it looks like a scam.
Mic
Friday, December 2, 2011 at 7:25 PMWell it IS EA.
pimento
Friday, December 2, 2011 at 7:09 PMI like Tetris too much to be a part of such rubbish.
bc
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 12:19 AMthis is what mobile games is degenerating into… i can imagine dev teams ending up 50% psychology, 40% marketing/telemetry analysis, 10% art and code…
how can we trick them into giving us their money? how many whale users per hundred?
how can we give them the cheapest product and trick the most possible money out of them? are people still pressing the blue “purchase” button or are red buttons trending now?
PLEASE SOMEBODY COME UP WITH A BUSINESS MODEL WHERE WE CAN BE PAID TO TRY AND MAKE GOOD GAMES AGAIN NOT THIS STUPID TRICKERY!!!!!
i feel like we are being made into carneys, trying to come up with a sneakier ring-toss game to fleece the rubes… but the sad truth is this kind of wank is making money, and crafted asset-heavy games are just too expensive, nice and risky
:(
Lobo
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 12:26 AMI’m going to try to incorporate ‘fleece the rubes’ into my speech from now on.
But yeah. This is up there on my list of outrageous money grabs.
Thom
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 9:31 AMI’ve met some of the people on the team for this. Your ratios are on the right track, but a little off: its about 90% psychology, 5% marketing and 5% dev. They try to do as little direct marketing as possible and tetris was developed like 20 years ago.
To the critical: the thing to keep in kind, is that by coming to a blog like this, you’ve excluded yourself from their target market.
ed
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 12:44 AMTetris Friends is free and has addictive multiplayer modes, a leveling system and FREE.