“Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play” Explores Challenges of Entrepreneurship in the Video Game Industry
In Gamers at Work, serial entrepreneur Morgan Ramsay, founder of Entertainment Media Council, interviews 18 of the world’s most successful founders of video-game companies about their earliest days to where they are now. Along the way, the history of the video-game industry is revealed through entertaining stories, humorous anecdotes, and lessons learned the hard way.
The book explores how entertainment-software companies are formed, delving into the motivations and psychologies of their founders who sacrificed, played the odds, and struggled to stay the course. Through every story, Gamers at Work provides insights into the trials and tribulations of leading, managing, and growing small businesses into great businesses.
“This is the first time that a history of the video-game industry has been told through the personal stories of the entrepreneurs who pushed the business forward,” wrote Peter Molyneux OBE, founder of Lionhead Studios and creative director at Microsoft Studios Europe, whose foreword introduces the anthology. Those stories are told through exclusive and in-depth interviews with the following leaders:
· Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts;
· Nolan Bushnell, cofounder of Atari;
· Wild Bill Stealey, cofounder of MicroProse;
· Tony Goodman, cofounder of Ensemble Studios;
· Feargus Urquhart, cofounder of Obsidian Entertainment;
· Tim Cain, cofounder of Troika Games;
· Warren Spector, founder of Junction Point Studios;
· Doug and Gary Carlston, cofounders of Brøderbund Software;
· Don Daglow, founder of Stormfront Studios;
· John Smedley, cofounder of Verant Interactive;
· Ken Williams, cofounder of Sierra On-Line;
· Lorne Lanning, cofounder of Oddworld Inhabitants;
· Chris Ulm, cofounder of Appy Entertainment;
· Tobi Saulnier, founder of 1st Playable Productions;
· Christopher Weaver, founder of Bethesda Softworks;
· Jason Rubin, cofounder of Naughty Dog;
· and Ted Price, founder of Insomniac Games.
Gamers at Work is published by Apress, a division of Springer Science+Business Media.
For more information about Gamers at Work, visit the official website at www.gamersatwork.org.
