SPECIAL REPORT: We name the 25 people reshaping the game development business
It seemed at the time – and still is – a fairly simple question. Who are the 25 people making modern games development what it is? Or – who has produced the games, built the companies, chosen the strategies or introduced the innovations that everyone has watched, praised and will undoubtedly envy and copy?
This are questions we've attempted to answer with a special feature now available to read here.
Before the list in full, however, a few pointers on our methodology. One rule early on was that conspicuousness didn’t guarantee entry. Sales figures, achievements and review scores count over column inches. And for further evidence we were looking both forwards and backwards – pinpointing the key events from the last year, from the release of a game through to the sale or merger of a company, that should or could have the biggest impact in the years to come.
Back and forth emails (some of them heated) amongst the Develop staff argued for those we thought should – and shouldn’t – make the grade. We scrutinised each sector of the games industry, from casual games to mobile, publishers and format holders, plus those pioneering in online.
‘Continued dynamicism’ was one phrase used at one point during our heated discussions and however pretentious it very much sums up the people on this list up perfectly – these are the people whose ideas, plans and business skills are keeping the global games development business in shape and spurring it on.
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Yes, there are some wildcards in here – some surprises or a few people who are perhaps sometimes overlooked in favour of their more outspoken bosses. But there’s also some people you would expect, as well. We’ve even – gasp – widened the list to include a few from ‘the other side’; publishing. Specifically those publisher bosses who, like it or not, are dictating (or at least have been ready to greenlight) direction for their development troops or are implementing strategy to envy.
Ultimately we think we’ve got the right list of names here which, although always subjective, has pinpointed those who are helping to positively shape the industry – and have made a big impression in the past 12 months.
To read the full feature, click here.
But as we say, it's subjective - so who have we missed out? Let us know via the comments section below, or drop the editor a line at Michael.French@intentmedia.co.uk
Phil Harrison, the studio boss for Sony - surely he's gotta be in this list. A couple of other big omissions too - Will Wright. And more off-track - Keita Takahashi, Goichi Suda? And not a single Microsoft rep? Guess there were always going to be omissions, but it still saddens me.
Where's Will Wright?
Taka****ezuka?
Well, as they say, the list is subjective. It's sorely lacking on Japanese representatives. Don't mind about Will Wright not being there, though.
'Lacking Japanese'? Their market has floundered, most of the important, industry-defining titles are made by Western devs. Even having Sakaguchi on the list is a bit of a stretch - although I conceed his prolific output and outsourcing approach is fairly unique and to be admired.
I was surprised that JJ from Bungie (or someone from Bungie - whoever arranged their independence) is missing, however.
And what about Peter Molyneux - although I guess he, like Will Wright, hasn't done much lately - perhaps if this list gets updated after Fable 2 and Spore come out they will be featured?
David Jones, Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto Svengali, and erstwhile employer of most of the games developers of Scotland at one time or another.
I'm very flattered to be on this list! One correction though - I was not head of web games at Shockwave. I was a coder, working on the Williams arcade classics (Defender, Robotron, Joust, Spy Hunter).
@JohnR:
You're right in that the list is sorely limited in Japanese representatives, but rest assured it's not an oversight on our part.
As the Develop staffer who follows the Japanese market the most, I was keen to put forward as many Japanese people as I could - Sakaguchi was my call and the one I fought hardest for - but it was surprisingly hard. I've not always subscribed to the recent trend in thinking that the Japanese are lagging behind the west, but when it came to putting forward candidates for the list I found myself having no choice but to agree.
That's not to say that I don't think the Japanese make good games - I don't think anyone with any sense could say that - but in terms of people changing or influencing the business, there's very few. We're confident that Iwata and Sakaguchi have enough about them to make them worthy of list membership, but when it came to others that we discussed - Suda 51, Kojima, Keita Takahashi, etc. - we didn't feel they quite deserved the space in a top 25, despite their considerable accomplishments (and no matter how much we may be fans of theirs).
Hope that's settled a few things for you!
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I'm deeply saddened that Shigeru Miyamoto is not on there... as well as the surprise that no one from Microsoft/Xbox is on there, or anyone from the Sony camp!?!?
I can't believe there's no mention of either Fumito Ueda (Team ICO) or Akihiro Hino (Level-5). Both of them deserve to be on this list more than Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi hasn't done a single notable thing in years, and I fail to see how he is "reshaping the game business". His games always tend to be more of the same thing. Ueda's games prove that more is not always better, and making minimalistic games far more acceptable, and Hino's show that RPGs can actually be fun.
Enjoyed the article, make me aware of some people I hadn't heard of.
Big annoyance reading this site: I'm not sure if its Safari only but the news ticker on the top of the site keeps pushing the article down and it made reading the article very irritating. I had to copy paste the text and read it offline.
Other than that, nice write up.
What No Mark Frohnmeyer? Dude where have you guy's been...Not to Garagegames dot com obviously. Just launched sweet looking multi-super-duper Tribes
