White House pulls down offensive Tetris-inspired game following legal concerns.

It seems that video game companies can indeed influence the Trump administration’s decisions. After the White House introduced a new “Arcade” section on its official website featuring some questionable web browser games, they quickly removed a Tetris-inspired game from the lineup.

On September 4, the White House launched five games on Arcade.gov, which ranged from childish to overtly offensive. One of these games, Build the Wall, closely resembled Tetris and was described as “Protect the border from the coming horde.” Aside from the blatant copying and nativist themes, the game was also poorly designed, as filling a horizontal line failed to clear any blocks.

Following the game’s release and its promotion on the official White House X account, The Tetris Company took a stand against the hateful messaging and copyright violation. In an Instagram post, the official Tetris account stated, “At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them. To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community.” They also added in a comment, “P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of Build the Wall. P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously.”

In 2012, The Tetris Company successfully won a copyright infringement case against Xio Interactive for its 2009 mobile game Mino. While it hasn’t been confirmed whether they directly contacted the Trump administration, it appears the message was received.

You might think that rights holders would object to their games being used to promote divisive and xenophobic messages, but many companies have remained surprisingly silent. The White House’s X account is filled with apparent copyright violations, including a notorious post that mixes the Pokémon theme “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” with footage of ICE raids. In promoting Arcade.gov, the account also misappropriated Sega’s logo, Sonic the Hedgehog’s Green Hill Zone theme, and iconic loading screens from consoles like the GameCube, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2.

Despite this ongoing behavior, notoriously litigious companies like Nintendo have largely refrained from taking action, possibly out of concern over potential government retaliation in the form of tariffs. While The Pokémon Company previously clarified that it did not authorize the Trump administration to use its intellectual property, it took a neutral stance by stating it was “not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda.”

As the Trump administration continues to exploit their games for promoting hate, many game companies remain unresponsive.