Trip Hawkins On Steve JobsThe passing of Steve Jobs last week has generated countless articles and reminiscences about his impact on technology, on society, and on the world. His legacy of innovation also deeply affected the game industry. The Apple II personal computer was revolutionary in bringing word-processing and spreadsheets into the home. More than that, though, the Apple II's capabilities with color and sound inspired programmers to create games for it. Games quickly became an important part of personal computing, and many companies were created in those early days of the industry. IndustryGamers reached out to one the most important pioneers in the game industry who had also worked with Steve Jobs in the early days of Apple: Trip Hawkins.
TripHawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, the 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate, worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1982. He was Director of Strategy and Marketing for Apple when he left in 1982 to found Electronic Arts. Trip is now CEO of Digital Chocolate, which is a leader in social and mobile games. He shared some thoughts on Steve Jobs and what he meant to the gaming industry with IndustryGamers.
Trip Hawkins:“Regarding the game industry specifically, Steve Jobs made some great game platforms without really trying. He always had a higher purpose in mind but his ability to innovate in user interface resulted in the earlier adoption on computers of input methods including game paddles, joysticks, the mouse, and the “swipey” iPod touch interface. He was among the first to care about getting color onto a PC screen, and bitmap graphics, both of which were breakthroughs on the Apple II that made it a strong early game platform. More recently, both the iPod Touch and the iPad established new game platform archetypes that have given birth to several new game mechanics and genres. Finally, the App Store is an outstanding shopping and merchandising experience which has encouraged more device owners to discover their inner gamer.”
Apple's recent influence on the game industry with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad have been enormous. Apple announce at their recent press conference that over $3 billion has been paid to app developers, and since games are one of the largest categories (if not the largest category) on iOS, the game industry owes billions of dollars in recent revenue to Apple's hardware platforms. Moreover, the spread of in-app purchasing (which now accounts for more than 50% of the revenue in the App Store) has propelled enormous growth in the free-to-play business model, which of course has a major effect on game design. While Steve Jobs has left us
Trip shares some further thoughts about Steve Jobs in his blog post here.
