Tetris Effect Is Getting Multiplayer This Holiday as a Timed Xbox and PC Exclusive Update

The new update, Tetris Effect: Connected, will hit other platforms for free next year.

News by Mathew Olson, Reporter

Updated on 23 July 2020

If you've ever snapped out of a trance while playing Tetris Effect and thought "this would be so much fun with multiplayer," you're in luck. At today's Xbox Games Showcase, Enhance Games unveiled Tetris Effect: Connected, a new version of the game that'll add multiplayer modes. It'll launch this Holiday for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC through the Microsoft Store, and it's coming to Game Pass.

This'll be Tetris Effect's debut on Xbox consoles, and the newly "optimized" single-player modes from the older releases on PS4 and PC will be brought with it. The multiplayer will include both competitive and co-operative modes, including the titular three-player "Connected" mode that allows players to join together their Tetris playfields.

The new trailer for Connected illustrates the multiplayer focus in a pretty cute way. It begins with a square shot of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov before going on to introduce other familiar faces from the Tetris community. On a first watch, I spotted competitive Tetris and fighting game commentator James Chen, plus top-tevel players Heather Ito and Jonas Neubauer (a 7-time Classic Tetris world champion).

The Connected update will be a timed exclusive for Xbox and PC through the Microsoft Store and Game Pass. For PS4, Oculus, and PC players on Epic Games Store, Tetris Effect will receive the update for free in summer 2021.

Tetris Effect: Connected will support Smart Delivery, Microsoft's proprietary cross-gen purchasing scheme. So, if you're itching to play Tetris Effect on Xbox but aren't planning on grabbing a Series X at launch, your purchase on Xbox One will carry over to the next-gen console when you're ready.

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Mathew Olson

Reporter

Mathew Olson is a writer formerly of Digg, where he blogged and reported about all things under the umbrella of internet culture (including games, of course). He lives in New York, grew up under rain clouds and the influence of numerous games studios in the Pacific Northwest, and will talk your ear off about Half-Life mods, Talking Heads or Twin Peaks if you let him.

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