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Comment by smelendez | Hacker News Reader

The sticker part makes sense, but why did it say "now," which usually would imply it once didn't include Tetris? I guess "includes Tetris!" just sounded awkward on its own?

Or maybe they made stickers for the contingency where they would ship some without Tetris, get the license, and ship some more with?

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Microsoft has always had plausible sounding but contextually nonsensical writing/UI.

E.g. In Outlook, it says (or used to?) "All done for the day!" when your inbox is empty. It's like they see how other UI/writing is done and copy it, but they don't think about it. Yes, other mailboxes say things like, "all done". Yes, "done for the day" is a common phrase. But no, it doesn't make sense in this context.

Same with the sticker. It's very common for a sticker-style design element on packaging to say "Now with...!". So they just did that without thinking.

They do the same thing with UI controls/patterns, but I can't think of an example off the top of my head right now. You'll see something in Windows and think, "ok, I see why you did that, because other software does that, but it doesn't make sense here."

Microsoft is run by a collective of aliens who are pretty good at imitating humans, but fall just a bit short.

Could be a psychological trick to make consumers think that they're buying an "improved" version.

    Now with more Tetris!

    Sweet Jesus!

https://youtu.be/HhI_f2WtUOs?t=227

Timeless classic, I knew what it was before clicking!

Maybe it's as simple as for the people making the boxes, it didn't contain Tetris from the start. And when they got the license, in their head, it now did have Tetris.

Most boxes don't contain anything from the start; you need to put the product in them before you sell them!

As the article stated; they made the boxes before they had secured the license. I.e. the boxes were made before the content was ready.

I understand. I was making a joke, but I guess it didn't land

It at least landed with me, I had a sensible chuckle :)

Yeah, sorry... It did not. Is it a reference I don't get?

Nope, not a reference! Just being silly and pretending that the sticker is accurate because at some point before the box was packed, it did not contain Tetris (or any other games), and then once it got packed, only then did it contain Tetris. Technically speaking, the contents of almost any box can be accurately labeled "now contains X!" because few boxes are constructed with their contents in them; stuff gets added to them after, which means at some point they did not contain whatever they're holding.

Thanks for the patience. After a good nights sleep I see it straight away... "Now includes well rested brain".

I read the "now" as pure marketing. It creates a little sense of "this just got better" even if there was never actually a Tetris-less version on shelves

Because a sticker "includes Tetris" on a box that doesn't mention Tetris otherwise seems like a mistake, while "now includes Tetris" sounds like there's been a change that made the information on the box out-of-date/incomplete?

The latter sounds very plausible, it covers all bases.

Or maybe there was some pre-release catalog listings/marketing that listed the games without Tetris?

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