Slashdot Mirror
The 25 Games Industry Influentials of 2006
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."
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
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
Oh, console influential. I get it.
Not industry influential. How can I tell? Well, if you ship a half million consoles, your company (SCEA) gets 2 spots in the top 25. If your company has an MMORPG on the PC with 7 MILLION paying subscribers, you get squat. Zero, zilch, not even an "honorable mention". So, you effect a a half million, 2 spots, you effect 14 times as many, you get 0 spots. Even the XBox 360, which Microsoft wants to ship, what, a couple million of? gets very high billing.
The console industry is not the games industry. It is a part of the industry, but not the entire industry. I'd argue it may not even be the most popular or influential part of the industry.
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.
I'm trying to think what criteria Next Gen might have used to judge Iwata that might make him second on this list.
English accent?
Penis size?
I really am at a loss. This should have been a lock for him.