Who are the most important figures in the videogame industry (now, or in terms of influence throughout history)? My Top 15 in terms of Total Influence 1) Shigeru Miyamoto 2) Ken Kurtagi 3) Satoru Iwata 4) Peter Moore 5) Yuji Naka 6) Hideo Kojima 7) Will Wright 8) Ralph Baer 9) Bill Gates 10) Hiroshi Yamauchi 11) Gunpei Yokoi 12) Bushnell 13) The Stamper Brothers 14) Trip Hawkins 15) Alexi Pajitinov Current top 10 1) Miyamoto (no explination needed) 2) Gates (no explination needed) 3) Stamper Brothers (Until they left, Rare was Microsoft's best way to do well in Japan) 4) Peter Moore (Sega & Microsoft) 5) Kurtagi (too much to list) 6) Iwata (too much to list) 7) Kojima (MGS) 8) Wright (The Sims, Spore) 9) Yamauchi (the DS business model was his last great idea) Tie: The obscure business men who saved Sega, Namco, Capcom, Midway from bankruptcy

Yu Suzuki is missing man! Are you alright?? He's Mr. Virtua Fighter, Sega Rally, Shenmu... Bill gates is to high, and IMO he doesn't even deserve to be listed here. Also, I think that Michel Ancel (Rayman, BGE) and Frederic Reynald (Alone In The Dark, LBA, Toy Commander) deserve to be listed here. Who is Ralph Baer and Trip Hawkins. My list would be like (in no particular order except for the first ) 1) Miyamoto Yamauchi Yu Suzuki Shinji Mikami Inafune Yamauchi Kazunori Kojima Will Rights Alexi Pajitinov Michel Ancel Frederic Reynald yuji Naka Okamoto

Hawkins made EA into what it is today... Baer essentially created videogames...

You've got a lot of the right names, but the order is questionable to say the very least.

1. Miyamoto (coming from the software side, he still was able to shape the whole industry... He invented one of the most prolific genres of all time in the platformer, he shaped 3D gaming more than anyone, and now is instrumental with Wii...) 2. Bushnell (without him, the videogame industry may never have evolved into a big business at all... His company became the definition of games for a generation, and paved the way for Nintendo and PlayStation.) 3. Yokoi (inventor of the most dominant hardware line of all time, having crushed its competition through 3 handheld generations, even long after his death, and now closing on the 200 million sold mark... And he also had a hand in the creation of other important and influential hardware and software...) 4. Kutaragi (reshaped the whole industry from one based around 1st party software, to one based around 3rd party software, in turn allowing the rise of countless companies and the production of thousands of games. And of course the mastermind of not only the first, but the second worldwide dominant consoles...) 5. Yamauchi (the man who ultimately brought the videogame industry to a point of stability that Bushnell failed to create...) I don't see how Naka, Moore, Iwata, Kojima, Wright or Gates can beat these guys... Not sure why Gates is even on the list...

If you're talking "most important industry figures currently" Iwata (probably) should be on the list ... IIRC Iwata took control of Nintendo in 2002 and is largely responsible for Nintendo's Blue-Ocean strategy; if this strategy ends up working out well for Nintendo (and it seems to be working well at the moment) he will probably be on the list of all-time most important people. Peter Moore is important, but unless something changes in the future all he has done is represented consoles which were not particularly popular in their generation. Yuji Naka, Hideo Kojima, and Will Wright are great developers but their influence is pretty limited ... "Bill Gates" is a tough one ... Microsoft (through the dominace of Windows and the creation of the XBox) is a very important company in the industry, and if they never existed the industry would be (drastically) different but I'm not too sure that any one person can be credited for this ... The one that shocks me that anyone would list is the stamper brothers ... In 1997 I could see them on the list but not today ...

Iwata is I think far and away the most influential person currently, since it's been Nintendo the last few years making all the big moves and steering the industry, and he's Nintendo.

I"m sorry but Bill Gates did NOTHING for video gaming. First off all, Microsoft until recently made very few games, and most had no impact on people. Second if you are refering to DirectX, Direct play and such, the only reason it became big is because the gave away or sold extremely cheap development kits for DirectX, while OpenGL developement programs could not be made anywhere near what Microsoft was giving DirectX away for. If anything I would blame Gates for the sad state of PC gaming as it is now.

Well, I agree with Eric's chart ( as always ). I think that Kutaragi, Bushnell and Yamauchi , as chief of dominant company of different eras , surely must be on the top positions ( behind Miyamoto obviously ). However, their order is irrilevant because they mark different generations. IMHO Iwata is , currently, the most influential personality in the industry but we can analize his behaviour ( and results ) only when this generation (DS,Wii,PSP, PS3, 360 ) is over. Yokoi is another legend of this industry. I think that others personalities marked the VG history : Paijtnov - Tetris is the most astounishing game I ever played. When simple means ingenius. Iwatani - Yes, VG industry begin to talk seriously about female gamers only on 21th century but Iwatani with Pacman and above all with Mrs packman targeted that huge audience in early '80 ( prophet ). Carmack - Doom had a huge impact on PC games. It introduce a new way to view and "live" a game, it was the first graphical engine to be sold to others developers, the first engine that can be modded by users and the first to focus on online competition with doom 2 ( and quake ). Garriot - I say only one thing : this is the father of Mmorpg with Ultima Online. Tajiri - What is the VG that had the hugest impact on society ( not only on gamers ) ? Surely, Pokemon. A whole generation of kids grew up with tajiri's monsters. 160 milion of games sold in 10 years mean something ( Mario sold 200 milion in 20 years !). Hawkins - EA is the biggest third party in the world thanks to this man. However 3DO multiplayer system was a stupid idea.

Some good picks, Celine... And yes, if you want to name the most important figure right now, it is without a doubt Iwata. He restructured Nintendo's software development, resulting in them making more games, and he oversaw the DS and Wii, which have a chance to demonstrate the biggest across-the-board domination the industry has ever seen. He even personally secured the creation of a new franchise, which has gone on to sell 10 million copies (Brain Age). Seemingly Iwata can do no wrong right now.