Hmm... Real top 10, in kinda chronological order.
Ralph Baer
Nolan Bushnell
David Crane
Hiroshi Yamauchi
Gunpei Yokoi
Shigeru Miyamoto
Trip Hawkins
Will Wright
Ken Kutaragi
Satoru Iwata
11th spot... Carmack, probably.
Top RPG guy... Tajiri, not Sakaguchi! Both in the top 20 though.
Don't say it's Nintendo slanted. Reality is Nintendo slanted. The 4 Nintendo guys in the top 10 are all shoo-ins. 30 years of major trends in both console and handheld gaming go to those 4 guys, with Kutaragi the only non-Nintendo guy to be as important in console gaming, post-Atari.
Speaking of Atari, after Miyamoto, Bushnell is an EASY 2nd.
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
