The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced today that Bing Gordon, formerly Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts, will be the fifth AIAS Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. The award recognizes those outside of game making for their amazing contributions to the industry. Gordon was an early pioneer at Electronic Arts and continues to invest in the future of social gaming at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers.
The award will be presented at the 14th Annual Achievement Award, as part of the 2011 D.I.C.E Summit, by Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick. The summit will take place Thursday, February 10th, 2011 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.
“Whether it is developing a new ground breaking marketing campaign, running one of the largest video game industry publishers or taking a risk and starting over with social gaming, Bing has left a lasting mark on the video game industry,” said Martin Rae, AIAS president. “He really believed in the video game industry and dedicated his life to nurturing and growing the industry into what it is today. Always ready for a new challenge he saw the same potential in the social gaming category and took on this frontier, an industry that has really erupted and has really changed this industry.”
Gordon began at Electronic Arts’ marketing department in 1982 before being promoted to Chief Creative Officer. While at EA, he laid the groundwork for the EA Sports brand and mentored some of the gaming industry’s best and brightest. He later joined Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, to lead investments in the growing social and mobile gaming space, with companies like Zynga and ngmoco having been recipients. Gordon is also a director at Amazon and is an endowed chair of game design at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
“It has been my pleasure to be one of the foremost translators of Binglish,” said Richard Hilleman, chief creative director, EA. “Bing has had a clear view of our industry, often focusing on the product, marketing and business issues that will define the program before most people even understand the concept. His contributions to business planning live on at Electronic Arts and many other organizations.”
"Bing is clearly one of the key visionaries and drivers who helped shape the video game industry,” said V. Paul Lee, managing partner, Vanedge Capital. “He has been a mentor, friend, partner and advisor, not just for me, but for a number of the key leaders in the industry. Bing also has more fun than anyone I know - and his zest for life informs an equally impressive intuition for consumer and lifestyle trends. He understands change because he has such a great time living it."
“The scariest thing about Bing is that he's usually right,” said Mark Pincus, Zynga CEO.
"From a small group of outliers and contrarians, we have grown to an industry that changed media usage, and proved that interactive really is better," added Bing Gordon himself.
