Congrats, Trip!

[digitalpress]

Though many of you do not like what EA has become, try to remember what it once was. Trip Hawkins was the man who made that happen. He's also the mind behind the 3DO technology that - like it or not - was among the first in a long line of "do it all" game consoles. Visionary.

And now, part of The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=6555

We nearly had Trip Hawkins at Classic Gaming Expo the last two years - hopefully third time's a charm. I'm looking forward to hearing the stories behind some of his innovations.

[Half Japanese]

Did anyone else see the letter that got out recently that he sent to GamePRO, blasting them for giving the ps2 clunker Portal Runner a low to average review score? That was great.

[NeoZeedeater]

Trip's EA was a great company. They seemed to have a healthy relationship with their developers in the early days too. I have many fond memories of games like Archon and One on One.

[youruglyclone]

Did anyone else see the letter that got out recently that he sent to GamePRO, blasting them for giving the ps2 clunker Portal Runner a low to average review score? That was great.

link or text please!

[digitalpress]

Did anyone else see the letter that got out recently that he sent to GamePRO, blasting them for giving the ps2 clunker Portal Runner a low to average review score? That was great.

It's great to see that someone that high on the ladder stands so fervently behind their own product (whether it deserves the support or not). You don't see enough of that nowadays.

[CreamSoda]

If only EA was like it used to be... :(

[WanganRunner]

Does he do anything nowadays?

He's talent, someone should hire him, even if he probably wouldn't be a very obedient employee, being used to running the show and all.

[Half Japanese]

To those that wanted to see the text where Trip tears into GamePRO, I was able to dig it up:

http://www.gamedrool.com/article.cfm?blog_id=1895

I was originally led to this link via techblog-thing www.kotaku.com so I'll toss it a little credit where it's due. Enjoy!

EDIT:

"What's he doing these days" (can't quote in an edit)

I think he runs a company that develops/publishes mobile games. If I'm remembering correctly it was called Digital Chocolate or something along those lines.

[Lady Jaye]

And before all this video game greatness, Trip Hawkins was part of the select fews who attended the historical Apple visit of Xerox PARC (he was back then manager of marketing planning at Apple and, by the time he left Apple to found EA, he was Apple's Director of Strategy and Marketing)...

http://www.themacobserver.com/columns/thisweek/2004/20040731.shtml

(scroll down to July 25-31 - 1979)

[Sothy]

I myself personally would play portal runner anyday rather than another frikkin ea sports game but thats me.

kick ass and take names Trip.

[squidblatt]

I'm surprised it took this long. He definitely deserves an accolade or two for his role in creating the game industry. Sometimes he says things that I don't agree with, but then he knows tons more about what he's talking about than I do.

[EnemyZero]

yeah i miss the EA days of trip, look what happened when he left ::sob:: now EA relies mostly on there sports franshises and james bond

[shai hulud]

it seems with Trip as with many of his intellect that there is no middleground. He is so right on many things and then more than wrong on others.

[digitalpress]

it seems with Trip as with many of his intellect that there is no middleground. He is so right on many things and then more than wrong on others.

Naturally! Most innovators and creative genius' operate under the "no risk, no reward" philosophy. They're going to have a dozen duds before hitting the big idea, but the big idea more than makes up for the failures. Bushnell is another good example.

If I were as smart as these guys I'd do the same thing. Their gambles have paid off in the long run, at least to us, the gamers!