List of video game industry people

Short description: Wikipedia list article

Below is a list of notable people who work or have worked in the video game industry.

The list is divided into different roles, but some people fit into more than one category. For example, Sid Meier is both a game designer and programmer. In these cases, the people appear in both sections.

Art and animation

Jordan Mechner: introduced realistic movement to video games with Prince of Persia
Jim Sachs: created new standard for quality of art with the release of the Amiga game Defender of the Crown
Derek Yu: Indie video game artist, designer, and blogger. Known for working on Spelunky, Spelunky 2, Aquaria, Eternal Daughter, I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator, and DRL

Company officers

J Allard: Xbox Officer President
Marc Blank: co-founder of Infocom
Cliff Bleszinski: founder of Boss Key Productions
Doug Bowser: president of Nintendo of America (2019–present)
Arjan Brussee: co-founder of Guerrilla Games & Boss Key Productions
Nolan Bushnell: founder of Atari
David Cage: founder of Quantic Dream
Doug Carlston: co-founder of Brøderbund
Trevor Chan: founder and CEO of Enlight Software
Josef Fares: founder of Hazelight Studios
Reggie Fils-Aimé: former president of Nintendo of America (2006–2019)
Greg Fischbach: CEO of Acclaim Entertainment before it bankrupted
Alex Garden: CEO of Relic Entertainment and co-founder of Klei Entertainment
Andy Gavin & Jason Rubin: founders of Naughty Dog
David Gordon: founder of Programma International
Shuntaro Furukawa: President of Nintendo (2018–present)
Hal Halpin: President of ECA
Trip Hawkins: founder of Electronic Arts
Sam Houser: co-founder and President of Rockstar Games
Tomonobu Itagaki: Founder of Team Ninja & Valhalla Game Studios
Satoru Iwata: Former President of Nintendo (2002–2015)
Tatsumi Kimishima: Former President of Nintendo (2015–2018)
Bobby Kotick: CEO of Activision Blizzard
Jennell Jaquays: started the game design unit at Coleco
Ken Kutaragi: Former President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (1997 - 2007)
Doug Lowenstein: founder and former President of the Entertainment Software Association
Shigeru Miyamoto: Representative Director of Nintendo
Hidetaka Miyazaki: President of FromSoftware
Peter Moore: COO at Electronic Arts
Peter Molyneux: founder of Lionhead Studios, Co-founder of Bullfrog Productions
Michael Morhaime: co-founder and former president of Blizzard Entertainment
Philip & Andrew Oliver: co-founders of Blitz Games; twins
Scott Orr: founder of GameStar, Glu Mobile
Randy Pitchford: CEO of Gearbox Software
Ted Price: President of Insomniac Games
Paul Reiche III & Fred Ford: founders of Toys for Bob
John Riccitiello: CEO of Unity Technologies
Warren Robinett: Founder of The Learning Company
John Romero: co-founded at least seven game companies: Capitol Ideas Software, Inside Out Software, Ideas from the Deep, id Software, Ion Storm, Monkeystone Games, and Gazillion Entertainment
Jeremiah Slaczka: co-founder of 5th Cell
Phil Spencer: head of the Xbox brand
Tim & Chris Stamper: founders of Ultimate Play the Game & Rare
Hirokazu Tanaka: President of Creatures
Christopher Weaver: founder of Bethesda Softworks and Co-Founder of ZeniMax Media
Jordan Weisman: founder of FASA
David Whatley: founder of Simutronics
Andrew Wilson: CEO of Electronic Arts (2013–Present) & director of Intel (2017-Present)
Hiroshi Yamauchi: former president of Nintendo (1949–2002)

Design

Hardware

Ralph Baer: inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first video game console
Seamus Blackley: main designer and developer of the original Xbox
William Higinbotham: main developer of Tennis for Two. One of the first video games developed in the early history of video games.
Josef Kates: engineer who developed the first digital game-playing machine
Ken Kutaragi: creator of the PlayStation brand
Jerry Lawson: pioneered the video game cartridge by designing the Fairchild Channel F console
Palmer Luckey: founder of Oculus VR (or Facebook Technologies) and the designer of the Oculus Rift
Ivan Sutherland: Internet pioneer who is regarded as the "father of computer graphics." Also invented the first virtual reality headset with the help of his students
Xiaoyuan Tu & Wei Yen: founders of AiLive, who helped create the motion sensing hardware for the Wii
Gunpei Yokoi: inventor of the Game & Watch, Game Boy and WonderSwan

Music and sound

Online gaming

Richard Bartle: wrote the first MUD along with Roy Trubshaw
John D. Carmack: developed an early online version of Doom which supported up to four players; later Quake supported 16 players which helped popularize online gaming
Jess Cliffe & Minh Le: developed the first Counter-Strike game and thus started the franchise.
J. Todd Coleman: Lead creative director of Shadowbane, Wizard101, Pirate101, Crowfall, and many other MMORPG titles.
Don Daglow: designed first MMORPG with graphics, Neverwinter Nights for AOL
Alex Evans: created the game engine for the LittleBigPlanet games & Dreams
Jeff Kaplan: lead designer of Overwatch
John De Margheriti: CEO of BigWorld Pty Ltd, makers of Massively Multiplayer Online Game Middleware (MMOG) technology
Elonka Dunin: General Manager at Simutronics, senior editor of IGDA Online Games White Papers
Kelton Flinn: designer of Air Warrior and many other pioneering online games, co-founder of Kesmai
Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): Creator of Ultima Online, Work on Lineage, Lineage II (Electronic Arts, NCsoft)
Dean Hall: Creator of DayZ
IceFrog: lead designer of Defense of the Ancients and Dota 2
Raph Koster: LegendMUD, Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies. (Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment)
Brad McQuaid: co-creator of EverQuest (Verant Interactive, Sony Online Entertainment, Sigil Games)
Rob Pardo: lead designer and producer of World of Warcraft
Philip Rosedale: founded the virtual world Second Life
John Smedley: co-creator of EverQuest (Verant Interactive, Sony Online Entertainment) and president of Sony Online Entertainment
Gordon Walton: executive producer
Jordan Weisman: founder of 42 Entertainment, co-creator of I Love Bees and The Beast
Will Wright: c of The Sims Online (Electronic Arts)

Producing

Eiji Aonuma, The Legend of Zelda series
Mark Cerny, Jak and Daxter series, Spyro the Dragon series and Ratchet & Clank
Guillaume de Fondaumiere, Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy), Heavy Rain, Beyond, and Detroit
Yuji Horii, Dragon Quest series
Sam Houser, Grand Theft Auto series, Bully, The Warriors, Max Payne 3
Todd Howard, The Elder Scrolls III, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and Fallout 4
Keiji Inafune, Megaman character designer, producer of Dead Rising and Onimusha
Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear, Zone of the Enders, and Death Stranding
Ken Levine, BioShock, System Shock 2
Jade Raymond, Assassin's Creed
John Romero, executive producer and designer of Heretic, Hexen
Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy series
Bruce Shelley, Age of Empires
Rod Fergusson, Gears of War series
Warren Spector, Thief, Deus Ex
Daniel Stahl, Star Trek Online, Champions Online
Yu Suzuki, Virtua Fighter series, Shenmue
Dave D. Taylor, Abuse

Programming

Michael Abrash: pioneer of fast PC graphics; author of graphics programming texts
Dave Akers: programmer of the arcade games Klax and Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters
Ed Boon: programmer and creator of the Mortal Kombat series
Jens Bergensten: lead developer of Minecraft since 2011
Danielle Bunten Berry: M.U.L.E., Seven Cities of Gold
Jonathan Blow: creator of Braid and The Witness
David Braben: co-creator of Elite
Bill Budge: Raster Blaster and Pinball Construction Set
John D. Carmack: Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, co-founded id Software
Don Daglow: 1970s mainframe games Baseball, Dungeon; also did Intellivision Utopia, first sim game
Fred Ford: lead programmer of The Horde, Pandemonium!, the Star Control series, and the Skylanders series
Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British): creator of the Ultima Online series, Tabula Rasa and founder of Origin Systems
Nasir Gebelli: famous for programming Square Co.'s (Now Square Enix) Final Fantasy for the Famicom (NES) and a few other Square titles; a programming legend on the Apple II
Mark Healey: known for working on Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper, the Fun School games, the LittleBigPlanet games, and Dreams
Rebecca Heineman: Out of this world and The Bard's Tale
William Higinbotham: designer and programmer of Tennis for Two, one of the first video games developed during the early history of video games
Alec Holowka: Indie video game programmer and designer. Known for working on Aquaria, I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator, and Night in the Woods
Wesley Huntress: Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulator and Wilderness
André LaMothe: author of several game programming texts
Maddy Thorson: founder of Extremely OK Games (previously Matt Makes Games) and lead developer of TowerFall and Celeste
Al Lowe: Leisure Suit Larry series
Seumas McNally: founder of Longbow Digital Arts and lead programmer of DX-Ball, DX-Ball 2, and Tread Marks. The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is named after him.
Jordan Mechner: Karateka and Prince of Persia series
Sid Meier: Civilization series, Railroad Tycoon, co-founder of Firaxis Games
Alan Miller: original programmer for Atari 2600, co-founded publishers Activision and Accolade
Jeff Minter: founder of Llamasoft and programmer of most of their games
David Mullich: The Prisoner and other Edu-Ware games
Yuji Naka: Sonic the Hedgehog and other Sega games
Gabe Newell: Half-Life; co-founder of Valve
Markus Persson (a.k.a. Notch): created Minecraft; founder of Mojang
Steve Polge: Unreal series and other Epic Games games
Zoë Quinn: programmer and video game blogger. Known for developing Depression Quest and for her role in the Gamergate controversy
Frédérick Raynal: best known for Alone in the Dark and the Little Big Adventure series
Chris Roberts: programmer and designer of Freelancer, Star Citizen, and the Wing Commander games.
Warren Robinett: Adventure, Rocky's Boots, & Robot Odyssey
John Romero: game programmer since 1979; known for Commander Keen, Doom, Quake
Jim Sachs: programmer of Saucer Attack and other home computer era games
Chris Sawyer: programmer and designer RollerCoaster Tycoon series and other games
Tim Schafer: programmer and designer of Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and Broken Age. Also worked on the Monkey Island games.
Ken Silverman: author of the Build engine game engine
Tim Sweeney: founded Epic Games, Unreal series and the Unreal Engine
Anne Westfall: programmer of the Archon series of games
Will Wright: programmer of first games in SimCity series and co-founder of Maxis
Corrinne Yu: Halo lead and principal engine architect (Microsoft Halo team), Gearbox Software (studio wide) Director of Platform Technology, Ion Storm (studio wide) Director of Technology, Prey engine lead programmer at 3D Realms

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