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The 25 Games Industry Influentials of 2006

Posted by Zonk on from the yay-red-octane-and-bethesda dept.

Next Generation has up a list of the people it considers the game industry's top 25 people of 2006. Headlining the list are the veterans of this round of the console wars, with the rest of the folks notables from individual game companies. Plus two guys who make a comic. From the article: "6. Todd Howard, Bethesda - On Xbox 360, Oblivion has sold over 800,000 copies in the U.S., generating $50 million in revenues. Todd Howard, the game's executive producer, has spent four years on an RPG that captured many gamers who did not see themselves as the types to lope around grassy fields, collecting mushrooms and perhaps doing the odd bit of combat. The game's goal was to allow players to 'live another life' and it certainly succeeded. This is what makes Oblivion one of the most important games of the decade, as well as one of the best games."

5 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Peter Moore? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How is Peter Moore at the top of the list?

    He is not involved with the largest videogame publisher in the world (Nintendo)
    He is not involved with the largest videogame publisher in North America (EA)
    His company has not produced the best selling videogame system in the world (Nintendo DS)
    His company has not produced the best selling videogame system in North America (Nintendo DS)
    His company was not involved with the highest ranked videogame of the year (The Legend Of Zelda)
    His company was not involved with the best selling videogame of the year in the World ( New Super Mario Bros )
    His company was not involved with the best selling videogame of the year in North America (Madden)

    Why was he even near the top of this list? The XBox 360 has been outsold by the Nintendo DS, Playstation 2, PSP and will soon be outsold by the Nintendo Wii and possibly the PS3 ...

    I wish I was as successful as this guy ...

  2. Let us see... by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    25 Rating board head - lawyer
    24 CEO
    23 Comic makers
    22 President
    21 gfx engine developer
    20 Shop network division president
    19 hardware manufacturer's PR guy
    18 CEO
    17 Marketing
    16 shop network COO
    15 CEO
    14 developer
    13 Sales&Marketing
    12 director
    11 distribution
    10 sales, marketing and management
    9 PR
    8 CEO and creative director
    7 marketing
    6 executive producer
    5 engineered the takeover of the Eidos
    4 sales and marketing
    3 attending interviews and doing the whole PR thing,
    2 boss of Nintendo
    1 business leader

    Rather few people who are involved in making actual games. Sales, management, shops, money making, corporate relationships and so on. Somehow actual games get lost in this all.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re:Let us see... by 91degrees · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, this is something of a puff piece. When you get comments like, "Her efforts in 2006 have sought to leverage the synergy between the new generation of consoles", I think a lot of these people wrote their own blurb. The marketing people talk about these terms like synergy and partnership, the execs tak about upswings, figures, markets, and agressive targets (rather jargonny again, but I think these terms mean something to the suits).

      But I think you underestimate how much influence the execs can have. Maybe less so in the big PLCs, but a few of these developers are fairly small shops, where the CEO knows exactly what's going on and is directly involved in the individual projects.

  3. Re:Influential? by king-manic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The article is titled "Next Gens most.." not "video games most"... Also Pc video games are fairly small portion of the market. There are more NHL 200k fans then there are PC gamign fans.

    --
    "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  4. Re:Iwata wuz robbed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I agree. Iwata got shafted. I'm at a loss to figure out what precisely Moore did that places him higher than basically heading up the Wii and pushing the DS(not mention Iwata's career at HAL includes things like Earthbound, Smash Bros and Kirby, whereas Moore's history is a series of failures).

    Guy didn't join the XBox project until the console had been out for 2 years, bungie and rare had been acquired, and the work to make live what it is today was already well underway.