10 men who changed the video game industry forever

The video game industry has grown leaps and bounds, from a mere fad to a world wide phenomena and a multi-billion dollar industry. Video game and technology site p8i.com presents a list of 10 men who, in their opinion, changed the video game industry forever.

[jack_burt0n]

Ken Kutaragi tru legend.

[Model]

who wouldnt remember Krazy Ken

[ABizzel1]

This is more of a who's who in gaming, there are candidates more deserving for who changed the video game industry. Some of the people on the list are no more than Businessmen who lead a company rather than people hard at work making game engines, amazing games, or features for the consoles. Ted Price is making his 3rd PS3 game he deserves to be here. Whoever, came up with the concept for Xbox Live deserves to be here. Miyamoto deserves to be here.

And hopefully I'll be able to join the people on this list.

[ZuperAmazingCooKie]

Kutaragi should be second though. He is the "Gutenberg" of videogames.

There are many guys missing on that list, including:

Hideo Kojima, Warren Spector, Tim Sweeney, Will Wright, John Carmack, Ken Levine, Koji Kondo.

Hell, maybe even Denis Dyack, John Romero, Ed Boon and John Tobias should be there before others! In spite of their latest failures...

Honorable mentions should include: Gary Gygax for laying the foundations of RPGs which have deeply influenced most modern videogames. CliffyB and David Jaffe for making very cool games and being very outspoken. Phil Harrison for his great GDC07 keynote. Mark Rein and Gabe Newell for being two of the best positioned fatsos in the industry.

This list is very console and japan biased, but even if it is, there are also important people missing, including:

Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell.

Creators of Warcraft.

Creators of OpenGL and Silicon Graphics

etcetera

J. Allard, Kaz Hiri an Peter Moore don't deserve as much credit as many guys I just mentioned that are missing on this list.

[CryWolf]

When is Ken Kutaragi coming back to Sony I hope sooner then later.

[Shnazzyone]

I dunno about the Gutenberg analogy... I have always seen him as more of an Edison. While his ideas changed alot of things. It wasn't him alone that made things. Gutenberg at least built and designed the first printing press. If Kutaragi deserves credit for anything it is being good at making a fine presentation to showcase technology. He's a great adman. He knows marketing and he knows how to sell things. He knows how to tell people to make things and he knows how to ask for the right things to be made.

In that he is a legend. Miyamoto legend... no... but a legend.

PS(thanks for the fanboy bubble popping. I guess the similarities between a PS controller and an SNES controller and the actual origins of the Playstation is a touchy subject.)

[likedamaster]

Agreed on everything. lol. Most of all, Shigeru Miyamoto should be up there at #1.

[kunit22c]

"Allard co-ordinated and directed the development of the X-box 360" Right when I read that I couldn't help but think "why is he on here?"

[theusedfake]

A couple people missing imho, but overall
decent list. Uematsu is a musical god.

[TheColbertinator]

That list is missing John Carmack and Yu Suzuki

[rukia_chan]

ken kutaragi>>>>billga ytes...

[NaiNaiNai]

Great list. Uematsu Is one of the best Composers Of our time.

[Shnazzyone]

No way in hell Kutaragi should ever somehow be above Miyamoto. That's retarded! How does never designing a game and just allowing sony to bring it's product developed for nintendo initially to the marketplace. Nothing but a cheap cd player with a game cpu to market. He didn't design it nor any tiny part of it. He merely greenlighted personel to do work for him.

Miyamoto showed what games needed to make gaming more then another passing fad. Thought up some of the most influential franchises of all time and has made some of the greatest games in history through personal involvement.

Check the history of playstation on wikipedia and then check the history of the playstation and tell me if i'm wrong.

Fail this forum post.

[lloyd_wonder]

Butt hurt much? Over 250mil PlayStation consoles sold and counting.

[Shnazzyone]

Why? Homophobic? Like other Sony children who have been butt raped by sony then fell in love?

It's simple logic... Playstation owes it's existence to nintendo... nintendo owes it's existence to Miyamoto. Playstation would never have been developed if Nintendo had not approved of the project. Sony kids really should all know that. You bash the Big N you bash the real roots to the playstation. Do you really think the similarities between the SNES controller and PS controller were really just a coincidence?

[ultimolu]

Shnazzyone, get a freaking grip okay?

[Chris399]

Sony branched off from Nintendo because of a division over how the next console should be manufactured. They owe none of their successes or failures to Nintendo as they steered their own professional destiny after that.

By your logic, I guess that Miyamoto and Nintendo owe their respective fortunes to Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon - the inventors of punch card computing - for the spark of inspiration that would eventually allow computers and consumer electronics with computing systems to come into existence.

Chill out, seriously. And I do hope that you are at least using a condom with your Wii-mote. Safe sex is important.

[crinale]

Does this guy even know Kutaragi was part of not only Playstation hardware engineering, but SNES hardware engineering also?

[Wakka_]

The Sony fanboys sure are dumb, ya? If it wasn't for Nintendo, PlayStation wouldn't have existed.

[ultimolu]

And if it wasn't for Sony, Microsoft wouldn't have entered the console industry, ya?

Keep using those multiple accounts to disagree with people who don't share your opinions, ya?

[raztad]

I think many fans are missing the point. This article is about guys that have changed the industry.

Miyamoto: Legendary creator of Mario. The most important franchise ever. His second spot is deserved.

Katuragi: Creator PS1, PS2, PS3. PS1 killed Dreamcast, defeated SNES. Cleared the road for xbox debut. After the PS1 the industry was never the same. The brutal victory of PS2 over Gamecube forced Nintendo to seek an alternative way to compete with the big guys, hence the Wii. xbox was killed and x360 launched just to get in the market before PS3. See a patern? Katuragi is the man. First spot very well deserved.

[Wakka_]

Hahaha. Poor juuken. You liked me when I said a bunch of pro-Sony comments, ya? What's wrong now? You are the most hypocritical person on N4G.

[ultimolu]

I did Wakka but now you're a snowball, ya?
Define hypocrite and then get back to me, ya? I'll be waiting, ya?

[ChickeyCantor]

"xbox was killed and x360 launched just to get in the market before PS3. See a patern?"

Sorry but that just didn't make sense at all.
How is the early release of a console relevant to the father of playstation?

The console generation was already over its usual 5 year cycle, it was about time a new console was released( and yes it worked in their advantage but thats what you get when the other 2 are lagging).
Nintendo and Sony were basically overtime.

"The brutal victory of PS2 over Gamecube forced Nintendo to seek an alternative way to compete with the big guys, hence the Wii. "
There were more factors than just them losing last generation(and the one before that).
For example Development costs got higher, and its true.

I don't even think Nintendo is looking at Sony in a way its a race, yes they are competing, but i don't think they would be so dramatic to say : We lost the generation with the gamecube, we must seek different ways to beat them!

Nintendo knew the specs of the PSP or PS3 for that matter, i don't think that held them back. The Wii could have been an epic failure in sales, since the hype is all about great powers a console can push.

Miyamoto deserves first spot imo, many developers of today are inspired by him to become a developer.
Ken is father of playstation, Miyamoto is the root of modern gaming.

[kunit22c]

Sony fanboys only think Ken should be above Miyamoto because it says Father of Playstation. You see PS3 fanboys are just saying Ken should be Number 1 because of fanboyism and Brand Loyalty, so PS3 fanboys i have a question for you, if the creator of the original Xbox was put as number 1 Would you think he deserves it? All of the reasons you can think of as to why he doesnt deserve it you can say the same about Ken. Well almost all of them. and you think he deserves to be number one because he brought sony into the gaming industry is the father of playstation and kept sony in the gaming industry lol ok... but no those are some veeeeery good reasons, lol although I don't think Ken should be put behind James and I think James should be moved down. Also I think Miyamoto should be number 1 he actually deserves it and more people know Miyamoto than Ken. Also Read Sidars Comment ^

[Pandamobile]

Where the hell is John Karmack?

[solar]

come on, Ted was way more important the gaming industry then John or Gabe....

/sarcasm.

must be a console gaming forum post. which isnt news. N4G failed...again.

[Etseix]

solar@

are u trying to mean that GABE from VALVE
is in the same level as John Carmack,?!?!!??!?!?!?

*slaps forehead*

[Pandamobile]

Without Gabe, or Valve, first person shooters as you know them today would be very, very different.

Valve and iD are pretty much the fathers of FPS gaming.

[solar]

not to mention the pioneers of Digital Distribution. along with everything else Steam does.

and where is anyone from Blizzard on that list? fail....

[likedamaster]

Damn you all!

[Nightfallen]

Umm, Insomniac worked on Jak and Dexter? That's a mistake in the article.

[RememberThe357]

I thought I was the only one who saw that.

[mintaro]

Daxter fool! Daxter!!

[Sunny_D]

WE LOVE KEN KUTARAGI! WE LOVE SHIGERU MIYAMOTO! WE LOVE HIDEO KOJIMA! WE LOVE JOHN CARMACK!

[wxer]

a very good list
and i think ken Kutaragi
really deserves to be #1 in that list
he changed gaming to what it is right now

[PotNoodle]

You can't argue that 1, 2, 6, 9 and 10 should be up there, regardless if they deserve their exact number. But there are some questionable ones there, they all deserve to be recognised, but not in the top 10.

As for that guy saying Ken doesn't deserve his position. The guy created and forced sony to carry on with the playstation. The playstation brought gaming to the mainstream, the playstation brought gaming to the biggest form of digital entertainment on the planet.

I'm not saying miyamoto or ken deserve a place over each other, that is entirely subjective, but you cannot take any credit away from ken. I personally don't think the industry would be where it is today if it wasn't for the playstation.

You can ask anyone with industry experience that, and i'm sure they would say the same. Even the playstation's competitors would not deny that.

[RockmanII7]

1) Miyamoto > Kutaragi
2) Ted Price, but no Kojima?
3) Ralph Baer, The Father of Video Games, missing???

list is F'd up

[Sunny_D]

Is Ralph Baer the guy who made pong? If so, he deserves to be on the list.

[RockmanII7]

Ralph Baer made the first home video game system (Magnavox Odyssey), first home video game (Shooting Gallery), first video game controller (light gun), and made the game tennis (Atari released the same game renaming it Pong, which latter resulted in a lawsuit)

[electricgta]

so glad i didnt see bill gates LOL

[ajay_solidsnake]

J ALLARD, PETER MOORE ??? WTF did they do ?

[raztad]

Peter M nothing. The other guy is MEH as well. I guess they are there to appease the masses :D. Carmack should be around cause of Doom, quake, and wolfenstein. Those titles reshaped the FPS genre and Pc gaming in general.

[Saaking]

Ken Kutaragi #1! I hope he's brought back to make PS4.

[Oldsnake007]

insomniac did not develop jak and daxter series

[Veneno]

Oh, that's right, this isn't the 10 douches in the gaming industry list

;)

[Etseix]

lol

i just wonder why this list dsnt have Hideo Kojima, o__o'

AND well talking about *changed* Fumito Ueda is the one who is changing the videogames right now,

P.D: ... is Shigeru wearing lipstick? o_O'

[Half-Mafia]

Ken Kutaragi is like r god

[4pocalyps3]

that guy has made the best music in gaming. especiall in final fantasy 7,8 and 9, my best ones. glad hes in the list.

[Light Yagami]

Ted Price? LMFAO!

[iown-ipwn-ikill]

oh im sorry, i didnt see cliffy b on there....shame..

[kwyjibo]

This list is all shades of sh-t.

According to this, Atari never existed, nor do third party publishers, nor does the Game Boy, Sega are only memorable for putting down the Dreamcast, and PCs are only good for Facebook.

Ted Price as an example of independent success? As someone who has actually changed the industry? Compare him to pioneers such as Will Wright, John Carmack, Richard Garriot, Trip Hawkins, Nolan Bushell, Gunpei Yokoi...

[Light Yagami]

"Thanks to Kutaragi’s diligence, Sony continues to be one of the most profitable and largest video game companies ever."

LOL! Sony are losing profits.

[halo2_redvsblue]

No Ralph Baer

[halo2_redvsblue]

And His name isnt James Allard Its J Allard, He Legally Changed his name to that.

[CryWolf]

This is why Sony need Ken Kutaragi back to table before Kazuo Hirai loses more of ps3's exclusives and profits over playstation the only smartest things Kazuo Hirai is going to do is putting backwards compatibility back on PS3 and a price drop.

[cmrbe]

Sony brings Crazzy Ken back for the PS4. I want another state of the art gaming/entertainment hub at Sony's expense.

My launch PS3 is the best $600 i spent.

[SKUD]

Agreed. OG 60GB model. Runs like a champ!.

[ZBlacktt]

Hideo Kojima received a lifetime achievement award this year and he is not on this list? Sigh....