The Tetris knockoff that briefly lived on the White House website is gone. Build the Wall, one of five browser games added to a new "Arcade" section on September 4, has been quietly removed just days after The Tetris Company publicly distanced itself from the project and warned that it takes copyright infringement "very seriously."
The takedown was first spotted by news outlets tracking the site. According to PC Gamer, the game's absence was noticed by This Week in Video Games, and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows the clone was still live as of roughly 9 pm ET on September 7. VGC also reported the removal. No official reason has been given for why it came down.
What the game was
The White House Arcade launched with five minigames tied to President Trump's policy agenda, each mechanically modeled on existing titles like Snake, Flappy Bird, and Tetris. Build the Wall, listed by GamesIndustry.biz under the fuller title Build the Wall: Zombie Border Siege, reworked Tetris so that stacked blocks formed a wall meant to keep out figures the game labeled as "aliens" crossing the "Southern Border."
As Game Developer noted, the clone added invaders trying to breach the assembled blocks, leaning on the administration's habit of referring to undocumented immigrants as "illegal aliens." A companion Snake clone, Rio Run, cast players as a government official gathering non-white characters into orange jumpsuits that formed the snake's tail. Both drew criticism for racist framing.
The Tetris Company spoke up
What set this apart from earlier incidents is that a rights holder actually responded in public. On the same day the Arcade went live, The Tetris Company posted on social media distancing itself from the project.
"At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them," the company wrote. "To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we're grateful to have you in our community."
In the comments, it added the pointed line: "The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of Build the Wall. P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously."
Game Developer describes The Tetris Company as the first video game industry company to directly criticize the administration's use of its intellectual property. Past posts featuring imagery from franchises like Halo, Destiny 2, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Pokémon were met with either quiet distancing or silence. The Pokémon Company confirmed to BBC News that its music and footage appeared in a deportation video without permission, saying it "was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content."
Nobody has confirmed a direct link between the company's warning and the takedown. A Tetris spokesperson declined to comment to Game Developer, and PC Gamer said it had reached out to both The Tetris Company and the White House without a reply. The US Department of Homeland Security has previously signaled it intends to keep using game imagery, stating it will "reach people where they are" whether through Halo, Pokémon, or other media.
What it means
There is no new release on the line here, but the episode is a small case study for anyone who follows how classic properties like Tetris get used and defended. It shows that a rights holder speaking up in public, rather than staying silent, can coincide with content coming down fast. Whether the other four Arcade games survive, and whether any of their source franchises follow The Tetris Company's lead, is the thing worth watching next.