The entrepreneur was born in Holland and moved to New York as a teenager, graduating from Stuyvesant High School in 1972. He studied computer science at the University of Hawaii.
In the late 1970s, he moved to Japan, started Bullet-Proof Software, and published The Black Onyx , one of the first Japanese-language role-playing games. It became a commercial success and made him a publisher who was not afraid to take risks with new genres.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 1988, he saw a demonstration of Tetris and immediately recognized its potential. He bought the Japanese computer rights to Tetris and went to Moscow in 1989 on a tourist visa to negotiate with Elektronorgtechnica, also known as Elorg.
Despite the challenges of conducting business in the Soviet Union, he managed to get the handheld and console rights to Tetris, which were licensed to Nintendo for the Game Boy. It has sold more than 35 million copies and defined the handheld market.
The Tetris Rights Battle
During the negotiations, Rogers developed a friendship with Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris, and later helped him and his family move to the United States.
In 1996, the two men created The Tetris Company to manage the game’s licensing globally. Rogers also created Blue Planet Software as the exclusive agent.
After selling a mobile-games business for 137 million dollars in 2005, he had a near-fatal heart attack. After that, he turned to environmental activism in Hawaii and founded the Blue Planet Foundation and the 100 percent renewable energy law.
He is currently managing director of The Tetris Company and oversees its expansion into other media and platforms.
His career path connects several key players in the history of PC gaming in Japan, the Cold War rights drama, and the current management of the Tetris brand, making him one of the central figures behind the game’s commercial success.
