Trip Hawkins
| Trip Hawkins | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | William M. Hawkins III December 28, 1953 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard[1] |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Employer | Digital Chocolate |
| Known for | Founding Electronic Arts founding 3DO |
| Board member of | Electronic Arts |
| Children | 4 |
William M. 'Trip' Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate.
Contents |
Career [edit]
Hawkins was the Director of Strategy and Marketing at Apple Computer in 1982 when he left to found Electronic Arts (EA), a video game publisher. Electronic Arts had a successful run for many years under Hawkins' leadership.
Though he remained chair of the board, Hawkins transitioned from EA in 1991 to form 3DO, a video game console company. 3DO was formed in partnership with several other companies including EA. Upon its release in 1993, the 3DO was the most powerful video game console at the time. It was also expensive, costing US$599,[2] compared to other major systems retailing for under $200. Sales were poor due to its exorbitant price and weak games that relied excessively on full motion video sequences (which were state-of-the-art for the time) at the expense of gameplay. Hopes for the system were further damaged in 1994 with the arrival of the Sony PlayStation, which beat the 3DO in price.
In 1996 3DO stopped developing the system and transitioned into a video game developer, making games for the PlayStation, PC and other consoles. Hawkins decided to make branding a focus and 6–9-month production timetables for games. As a result, quality suffered as did sales. Hawkins had used cash reserves to bail out the failing company before, but declined to do so a final time. Due to poor sales of its titles, it went bankrupt in May 2003. 3DO is now out of business. The defunct company sold most of its intellectual property to publisher Ubisoft.
In late 2003, Hawkins launched a new video game development company called Digital Chocolate. The company focuses on developing games for handheld devices. He stepped down from the CEO position at Digital Chocolate in May, 2012.[3]
In 2005, Hawkins became the eighth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.
Hawkins designed his own major at Harvard University in Strategy and Applied Game Theory.[1]
Further reading [edit]
- High Score, a video games retrospective by Rusel DeMaria and Johnny Wilson
References [edit]
- ^ a b William M. ‘Trip’ Hawkins III interview from SmartComputing.com
- ^ Ramsay, M. (2012). Trip Hawkins. Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play (pp. 1-15). New York: Apress.
- ^ http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/27/digital-chocolate-downsizing-founder-trip-hawkins-out-as-ceo-reports-of-layoffs-marc-metis-as-interim-ceo/
External links [edit]
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Trip Hawkins |
- Trip Hawkins at MobyGames
- Trip Hawkins's contribution to the Hospice Mask Project
- Hawkins entry "26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs" from Inc.com
- Trip Hawkins speaks at Stanford University
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
