Trip Hawkins is coming to Portugal and spoke to Sidequest!

The acclaimed Silicon Valley guru and one of the most recognized entrepreneurs in the United States and the world comes to Portugal for some visits and events in Lisbon. Trip Hawkins is to software what Atari’s Nolan Bushnell is to hardware, they are leaders who have revolutionized an entire industry and shaped it into what we know today.

Graduated magna cum laude in “Strategy and Applied Game Theory” from Harvard College, with an MBA from Stanford University, Trip Hawkins is an expert in leadership, strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, teamwork, business culture and practices in emotional intelligence. He played a key role in defining and building two main industries: personal computers and video games. One of the main contributors to the opening of four IPOs, he founded and led for the first 12 years Electronic Arts, now valued at US$40 billion and which earned US$5.5 billion in 2020, while leading its creative and product vision for EA Sports, adding heavyweight athletes like John Madden and the NBA itself to the brand.

Trip has made EA an industry leader. He also founded and directed The 3DO Company, a company pioneered in the early 1990s by creating a “media center” console with no region restrictions or soft locks, affordable licenses for game developers, using still new technology from optical disk (CD) and incredible hardware designed by the late Dave Needle and Dave Morse and the amazing engineer Robert “RJ” Mical who still works at Google today. The console suffered from high launch prices as it believed in the “hardware sale” model with less profit in the sale of games and multimedia software, but along with other consoles at the time, it suffered the strong impact of the arrival of the Playstation 1 and the millionaire campaign of Sony’s marketing with the famous “$299” sales price that impacted the world. Interestingly, Sony was one of the companies, along with AT&T, Matsushita/Panasonic, Goldstar and Sanyo, which also considered launching its own version of 3DO.

Imagine what would be the history of video games if Sony had launched its Sony 3DO in place of Playstation! 🙂

Trip Hawkins pioneered the use of terms like “producer” and “affiliate label” in the video game industry, that “E for EVERYONE” rating label, and was the first to publicly promote and give prominent credit to the creative talent behind the games. . He also invented the use of celebrities from other fields in video game development and promotion. His credits as a game designer include many award-winning bestsellers such as “Doctor J and Larry Bird Go One on One”, “John Madden Football”, “Army Men”, “High Heat Baseball” and his team that continued to lead giant projects like The Need for Speed, Road Rash, FIFA, NBA, The Sims and so many others.

Before founding Electronic Arts, he worked as a senior director manager at Apple Computer during its early years, joining in 1978, when Apple had only 50 employees and had sold only 2,000 computers in its entire history. While reporting directly to the company’s founders for four years, Trip Hawkins played a critical role in developing the personal computer market and in defining and designing the product features that have become the industry standards that remain with us today.

Author of four patents and nominated for the 2005 Academy of Sciences and Interactive Arts Hall of Fame, alongside legendary figures from the tech world, his products and companies have won hundreds of awards and he has personally won several awards as the only business executive embodied in the gaming industry hall of fame.

It was featured in every major media outlet around the world including the unusual distinctions of being one of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” and “King of Nerds” by The Economist. CEO for 33 years of four global companies, consultant to many other CEOs, Trip believes success is only part of how far we’ve grown. The principles he practices and teaches today, including strategies for financial gain, also address living with happiness, purpose and meaning while overcoming setbacks with grace, wisdom and tenacity. “Building resilience and a better version of yourself”.

Trip Hawkins works with many charities and for over three years was Professor of Technology Management at UCSB, where he taught entrepreneurship and leadership. On a visit to Portugal, he will be received at the American Club of Lisbon for a welcome dinner and then at the Universidade Lusofona de Humanidades e Tecnologia, the biggest private portuguese university, for a meeting with students, fans and young entrepreneurs in startups. In addition, he will be online mode with Rotary Governor Sergio de Almeida in a event of the Rotary Club District 1970 from the northern region, sharing his vision of the future of technologies in Portugal with thousands of businessmen, citizens and fellow Rotarians who plays a important role to social works and charity worldwide.

In the midst of all this, Trip Hawkins agreed to answer some questions firsthand to SIDEQUEST.

SQ – Trip, could you start by telling us a little about the beginning of your career? What is it like to be a young man in Silicon Valley, working at the newborn Apple with legends like Steve Jobs and deciding to quit to found your own company? Was it luck mixed with competence or how would you define this evolutionary process today?

TRIP – I was a teenager when I realized that I would invent and design games and run my own companies. Other people like me also came to Silicon Valley at that time, and we found each other because of our shared passion. That led me to Apple because they were selling some of the first computers into homes that could play games; being at Apple taught me how to run my own business. In some ways it was all inevitable. I think we can have a deep sense of knowing who we are and what we are called to do, but this truth lies deep within us and requires us to do some digging and get to know ourselves better.

 

SQ – In the early 80’s and 90’s, with the fall of the giant Atari, what was imagined to be the future of consoles and video games? And analyzing today’s market in parallel, what is expected of the future with these VR technologies, haptic responses, the end of time-consuming loadings, in addition to processors and graphics cards delivering ever more realistic games with content beyond super productions from Hollywood?

TRIP – Atari was misguided and poorly run at that time. Their demise made it much harder on EA in our early days. But I believed the computer was an entirely new social and creative medium for humanity. I stuck with my plans because I knew what we could do as computing power grew and costs went down. It required patience, as good things do indeed take time. Today, as we look forward, social value has become the most important thing about media, including games. The technology is good enough from a fidelity and realism standpoint, so the more important changes have to do with continuing to make things more convenient for our mass market consumers. The internet, mobile devices, the revolutionary iPhone UX, and “free to play” content are examples of this.

 

SQ – During your long career in Silicon Valley you have had the opportunity to meet, work with and learn from various tech and media legends and has mentored scientists and dozens of CEOs. We also know that one of the great heroes of his childhood was baseball player Willy Mays, an exemplary winner in his career despite racism and all the difficulties he faced. What could you advise young portuguese people with ideas and talent for applications, businesses or startups to one day become global giants like several Portuguese companies that are conquering the world?

TRIP – Any one of us can do the impossible: we just need to have faith, courage and determination. Governments can help enable the same ingredients that resulted in the success of Silicon Valley. We’ve seen this repeated in key technology fields, and in many other places including Seattle, Japan, Korea, India and China. 

 

SQ – Portugal is currently among the 10 most sought after destinations in the world by developers, several leading companies in their markets today have innovation and technology centers here. Places never imagined before are today a paradise for digital nomads, such as Madeira Island. You believe that the COVID pandemic and the consequent application of telecommuting, video classes, working from home and this whole new online environment are indicators of a revolution in labor relations and the creation of new technologies?

TRIP – Many tech people are introverts and can be very productive when working remotely. I see both advantages and pitfalls for remote work. It requires greater management attention to details.

 

SQ – You have a motto that fascinates us: “I don’t think outside the box: I BURN the box”. We live in a world made for boxes and people who settle in them, sometimes for a lifetime. Several so-called “developed” countries in the world burned their boxes in sectors of the economy and society, reducing bureaucracy, reducing taxes and encouraging culture and education. How do you think that this evolutionary process of society could be applied within the scope of the European Union as a way to even strengthen the union between member countries in favor of a Europe that is truly borderless and socially and digitally integrated?

TRIP – Each European country is much smaller than China or the U.S. But with a collective approach, the EU could be more powerful than any other country. Yet, we have seen how hard it is these days to get everyone to collaborate and reach agreements, as seen by Brexit and the painful divisiveness within some countries.

 

SQ – In a brilliant interview on the German MSM website, you declared that you have admiration for Valve’s entrepreneurs Gabe Newell and Epic’s Tim Sweeney. Faced with new indie studios developing successful games and applications that are accessed by millions of people, how do you imagine this “digital democratization” for the future?

TRIP – There are already 4 billion smartphones in the world, and 3 billion gamers: these numbers will continue to grow and reach more people. Technologies always have their social issues, but there is enormous collective benefit from internet access and mobile devices that we all now take for granted. And much more to come!

 

SQ – Looking back a little, both on your eldest “son” Electronic Arts and on The 3DO Company and in light of the current attempts by Google, Sega, Atari and others to release streaming service consoles, if you could launch a new videogame in your own way today, what would that piece of hardware and software look like?

TRIP – Haha, there would be no console, it would be a cloudstreaming service. 😉

 

SQ – In the book “Gamers at Work: Stories Behind The Games People Play” you say you were worried about what Nintendo and Sega would do to make it difficult for EA to have freedom in the future. Sony had not yet entered the console market and the PC was completely dead as a gaming platform. So it concluded that it was time for EA to take a more active role on the platform side, in some way that could drive market expansion and game publishing freedom. The famous “rivalry” with SEGA and the reverse engineering of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console actually ended up placing EA as one of the world’s leading game producers, in 2 years evolving from a company valued at $16 million to U. $2.2 billion and SEGA has exclusive and excellent versions of games for their consoles. Could you tell us a little more about this amazing idea and brilliant action that resulted in EA’s famous yellow stamp cartridges?

TRIP – The two critical things were that the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive was both affordable, at a price of $189, and powerful enough to become a genuine social computer where, for example, friends could play and compete in EA Sports games together. I therefore believed the machine could be the breakthrough EA needed on the hardware side. But the license programs were draconian and terrible. So I led EA to reverse-engineer the Genesis/MegaDrive so we didn’t need a license. It gave us freedom, which brought EA into its greatest period of prosperity.

 

SQ – In Portugal SEGA was extremely popular and many EA games were best sellers. However, the 3DO console was not nearly as popular as in Japan and the United States where it managed to achieve several successes in its short period of life and it was also the launch of classic games such as Road Rash, The Need for Speed, Return Fire, Quarantine, Escape From Monster Manor, Gex, great arcade versions like Samurai Shodown, Street Fighter and American Laser Games light gun shooters like Mad Dog Mcree. Unfortunately the console paid the price for bringing new concepts of incorporating movies, music, photos and games with videos in full screen and being a true entertainment media center long before the competition. Concepts that emerged with 3DO and continue to this day in the current console market. Even at that time, it was already thought of playing online! Undeniable legacy yes, but are you debiting in a hurry at launch without prior preparation, resulting in its premature end? And looking at it today, do you think that the never-launched 3DO M2 would make a significant difference compared to rivals available in the market at the time and could have been the continuation of The 3DO Company?

TRIP – In hindsight, perhaps we could have delayed the first 3DO launch for 6 months so more great games would be available at launch; and by that time we had gotten the street price down to $499, which was much more competitive. M2 could have had great success but it required a big hardware company to be willing to compete with the $2 billion that Sony was then investing in the PlayStation. That was a tough ask, because Sony had incredible corporate and brand power in those days.

 

SQ – You recently participated in the HIGH SCORE documentary on Netflix. How was the experience of participating in this serie and what would you like to add about these crazy 80s and 90s from your perspective?

TRIP – That documentary put the spotlight on several interesting topics, but taken as a whole, it did not attempt nor did it accurately walk the audience through the true history of what happened. The episode I am in makes it look like we were a modest part of Sega’s strategy, but in my view, Sega rode on EA’s back.

 

SQ – Today the great competition in the video game market with companies with companies striving for their business model to be the winner, in your view as a “forward thinker”, which strategy seems to be the right one?

TRIP – The cloud is everything. So again, I will say this one word: cloudstreaming.

 

SQ – Games with great success today, such as Fortnite and Minecraft, bet on innovations never thought before and the result is hundreds of millions of players, captivating especially the younger ones. Speaking of Fornite for example, which was supposed to be a shooter and became a great source of fun with dancing, construction, vehicles, famous characters and so on. Do you believe that this trend is driven by social media and streamers only, or is it natural from the evolution of videogames, which left that traditional base “go to the castle to save the princess” to this collective participatory concept that moves even the modalities of E-Sports?

TRIP – We now have a mass market where social value is key. That’s why Fortnite succeeds by being a big party, and a humorous parody of other, more hardcore games that not everyone wants to play.

 

SQ – You will be received for a portuguese-brazilian friend and by the American Club of Lisbon for a welcome dinner, go to visit the university to speak to students, young people and start up entrepreneurs, you will surely leave friends and fans from all over Europe delighted with your knowledge sharing. In your vision how Portugal can develop his digital skills without putting away its glorious history, from resistance and castles, worldwide navigations and that much what makes up the roots of this great nation? What would the Portugal 2030 be that you would like your children to find?

TRIP – I hope that so much of the unspoiled and beautiful in Portugal today is still there, shining brightly, in 2030, but with economic growth that has been helped by clean, sustainable technology industries.

 

SQ – You carry out numerous activities in various countries around the world, could you tell us how you find time to raise and accompany your children and dedicate yourself so generously to the family?

TRIP – Well, the Pandemic made it easier for us to be close, because three of my four children were in my home bubble in USA. My younger daughter, Hunter, suggested we write stories to read out loud after dinner every thursday night and we’re still doing that after more than a year. Everyone got very creative and better at writing from deep in our hearts. We do all love to travel and even for business travel, it is so much more fun to be with family and share the adventures.

 

SQ – What do they think of all your legacy and so many gigantic companies created by you?

TRIP – I’m very grateful to God for everything I have been given, including my abilities and access to so many amazing opportunities. I have had the good fortune to be alive during a period of incredible technology change. It is both amazing and amusing that I was actually on an expert panel at a conference many years ago with Gordon Moore, the inventor of Moore’s law! It was an honour to work with the Apple founders and to help build that company. Every company I founded was a big adventure but of course I am the most proud of Electronic Arts, my “oldest child”.

 

SQ – Electronic Arts, founded by yourself, is one of the several videogame companies that adopted an in game monetization strategy, with micro transactions, loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanisms. What is your opinion on this business model? Despite the huge income generated it starts to receive some backlash from the gaming community and has been the target of legal actions across several countries. Do you believe the model can sustain itself in the future or can it be coming to an end? As a gamer as well, what do you think of this?

TRIP – The “old school” gamers prefer to pay cash up front to buy a game and then play it for a bazillion hours. The “new school” wants to try, and play, games for free, and have the option to pay for things that make the game more convenient and fun. The new school is winning, and by a decisive margin. Personally, I believe “free to play” is very powerful for developers and customers, and they need a way to make money on the back end. We see various monetization models including paying up front, showing ads, loot boxes, virtual goods that are only for fashion, virtual goods that speed up gameplay results, subscriptions, and now even NFTs. There will be huge growth in the newer ideas on that list, and overly simple loot box schemes will not do as well. I’ve bought a lot of Magic: The Gathering cards, sports game cards and Warhammer stuff, so I don’t have a problem with loot boxes if they have reasonable play value and asset value. Companies need to be more sophisticated about this so they are not just offering a casino-style slot machine experience.

SQ – To fans, gamers, admirers and business people who wants to reach you, how can they follow you on their social media and keep in touch?

TRIP – Here are the social media links that people can use to follow what I’m doing: Facebook @Trip Hawkins, Instagram @thetriphawkins and my personal website http://www.triphawkins.net