During the negotiations for the rights to Tetris, the man who first purchased the rights to the game from Russia made a critical mistake. Because Robert Stein failed to pay the Russian Government what he had owed for pc rights to the game, The Soviet Ministry of Software and Hardware Export (Electronorgtechnica) refused to discuss further rights. Unbeknownst to them, Stein had already sold console, arcade, and handheld rights of Tetris to other companies. In order to remedy this and maximize profits from Tetris, Vice President of Electronorgtechnica Nikolai Belikov insisted on Stein signing a new contract that included inflated penalties for not paying on time. Stein hastily signed the contract without looking closely and unknowingly signed away any rights to video games, arcade, and handheld because Belikov had also included the definition of a PC, which defined it as including a mouse and keyboard. This allowed the Russians to sell separate rights for separate platforms. Looking back on this, Stein says;
“Belikov was a son of a b*tch. The clause resulted in the exclusion of some of the platforms that Tetris was on, and I didn’t notice it. Which, I will never forgive myself so there you go…I was so focused on getting what I wanted, that I forgot to watch out for what they wanted.”
