Vladimir Ivanovich Pokhilko (Russian: Владимир Иванович Похилько[1]) (died 21 September 1998) was a Soviet-Russian entrepreneur.
A friend of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, he was the first clinical psychologist to conduct experiments using the game.
[2] He played an important role in the subsequent development and marketing of the game, and a 1999 article in the Forbes magazine credited him for "co-inventing the seminal videogame Tetris".
[4] While attempting to create software for INTEC (a company they started) that would be made for "people's souls", they developed the idea for El-Fish.
[citation needed] After suffering financial difficulties at his software company, AnimaTek, Pokhilko murdered his wife, Elena Fedotova (38) and their son, Peter (12), by bludgeoning and stabbing them both to death.