THQ acquires rights to publish Tetris for Xbox 360

An Xbox 360 version of Tetris is coming to North America and Europe following the settlement of a legal dispute between publisher THQ and The Tetris Company.

THQ launched a lawsuit against the company last year, alleging breach of contract which prevented the publisher from releasing a Nintendo DS version of the classic puzzler. According to THQ, all requirements of the deal had been met, and the licensing agreement should have been renewed until 2007.

Now the company's financial filings have revealed that a settlement was reached at the end of 2005 - and that as part of the deal, THQ will publish Tetris for the Xbox 360 in territories outside of Japan, where a next-gen version was launched alongside the console last December.

THQ did not win the battle to publish Tetris for the DS, however - Nintendo released the game as a first-party title earlier this year.