~Credit to SpurgeonRyan for the thread idea~

http://kotaku.com/5930998/these-are-the-40-most-powerful-people-in-video-games?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_twitter&utm_source=kotaku_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

I think the list is generally quite well thought out, but there are definitely some controversial choices in there (particularly putting the CEO of Apple at the top). It's worth remembering that "powerful" is a pretty subjective thing, and it doesn't mean "best" by any means. 

Do you agree with the list - if not, who should be at the top? Is there anyone that features too low on the list, or even not at all?

It is interesting that Kotick and the Blizzard guy are so high seeing as Vivendi would love to sell them to any interested party, and there are no interested parties. It seems instead, the head of Vivendi should be there instead of the Acti and Blizzard guys.

But I get it.

I don't agree with Tim Cook behind up there but the rest of the Top 10 sounds right.

I like Apple but they are giving way too much credit to the company. It might be the future but how is it different than android from google. Google is activating more products than ios now. It being open source does help too. Rest of the list is alright i guess.

I guess Tim is in theory the most powerful. Apple could buy Activision, EA, 2K, SE and Ubisoft, create their own console or gaming service and make all the games from those publishers exclusive to their console or service if they wanted... they have more than enough money to do so. That won't happen though. I wonder what they're planning to do with the tens of billions of dollars they're sitting on... but that's for another thread.

You can't rank Tim Cook as the most powerful man in the video game industry for what he could do. You have to look at what he currently does and I think the iPhone and iPad are not enough to make him that powerful.

Look at bolded :P I wasn't saying he is, I was saying he could be if he wanted.

I have no idea who's currently the most powerful. Is there anyone with significantly more influence than everybody else? Who do you think?

"Tim Cook is the most powerful man in the videogames industry"

This is an absolute joke. I remember when Steve jobs was alive they had him at the top as well. This tells me that it's not about the person, but about the company whom they work for. Which makes it an even bigger joke. It's amazing how much influence Apple has, to be regarded the best at an industry where they barely are even known for. Pathetic.

Interesting read and right in line with where I see the game industry going over this next year. However, I'd still put Nintendo at the top spot solely due the fact that they have the most profitable IPs, a complete dominance (currently) over one entire market segment, and they typically innovate the next major shift in gaming hardware/control etc at every generation.

However, there is argument to be made for Apple or Google solely due to the extreme popularity of their OSs designs. Of course depending on how win8 takes off, considering its MS first foray to make an all encompansing OS, they could easily take this lead. Realistically, you have Apple Google Nintendo MS in the top 4 easy when considering where the market is and can go. Then the next few come to Sony EA (arguable who's actually #5) and a slew of big publishers or specific devs.

I'd have a tough time chosing between the CEOs of the big three. I honestly believe Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft (followed by the big development studios) are still the ones who shape the video game industry today not Apple and Google who primarily make smart phone and tablet OSs that happen to be able to run games among the many other things they can do.