The red Tetris sticker on Microsoft Entertainment Pack: A licensing contingency
The first Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows featured a prominent red sticker announcing the inclusion of Tetris because licensing negotiations were not finalised when the initial box runs were printed.
The first Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows did not carry a number in its title, as it was the initial release and sequels were not anticipated at the time. However, initial production runs of the software featured a bright red sticker on the box that read “Now includes TETRIS for Windows!”, despite the absence of any other mention or screenshots of the game on the packaging.
This unusual branding choice was the result of a contingency plan devised during the manufacturing process. At the time the first run of boxes was being printed, negotiations to license Tetris had not yet concluded. There was a genuine risk that the deal would fall through, which would have required the Entertainment Pack to be released without the game.
To mitigate the financial risk of destroying an entire production run of boxes if the license could not be acquired in time, Microsoft decided to produce the packaging without any reference to Tetris. In anticipation of the deal reaching a satisfactory conclusion, a separate run of red stickers was prepared and kept on standby.
Once the licensing agreement was secured, the pre-printed stickers were applied to the already-manufactured boxes. This allowed the company to release the product with the full game suite without incurring the cost of reprinting the entire inventory.
Later editions of the product integrated the Tetris announcement directly into the box art. These subsequent runs were labelled “Microsoft Entertainment Pack 1” and suggested that users try out “other volumes of Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows”, as packs 2 through 4 had already been released by that stage.
Consequently, copies of the first pack featuring the Tetris sticker are considered ultra-rare by collectors, comparable in status to the original Windows 95 box featuring a hologram of a shirtless baby. The naming convention of the first pack is often compared to World War I, which was initially known as “The Great War” because the scale of the conflict was not yet known.
