Trip Hawkins

ON SUCCESS: In the summer of 1993, 30 years ago, I was spending countless hours flying over oceans as I promoted the imminent launch of the 3DO multiplayer. I had a lot of time to think about the meaning of life and would riff and write about my musings in my calendar pages. Today, I stand by these tenants more than ever. Especially when it comes to this core truth, “Care deeply/love= SUCCESS.”

Gleefully reconnecting with the wondrous Woz who was a member of EA's board for the first several years. I'm so grateful for the opportunities I had in Apple's early days. And I suspect that even now, Woz has no idea how much he has meant and still means to me (maybe now he will!)

Delighted to see some of my favorite colleagues from 45 years ago at our recent Apple Originals gathering!! And of course such a pleasure to spend time with Woz’s wonderful wife Janet!

I feel blessed and owe a lot to all three of Apple's founders. Including Mike Markkula!

Today, I mourn. Jerry Moss, a personal hero of mine, was among the earliest investors in EA. I fondly recall the quality meals we shared in both SF and Hollywood, listening to artists' demo tapes in his limo, his unforgettable stories and mentoring lessons, and most of all, hanging out with him in his office at A&M. They'd taken over the original studios of United Artists, which had symbolic meaning to me due to UA's revolutionary empowering of media creative talent. In the old days, Jerry's office had been Charlie Chaplin's. Jerry was a very cool dude. &m

These shoes retire today in Barcelona, where I have helped five businesses, after a 45 year life during which I’ve been to over 80 countries. The searing heat melted the glue that held the shoes together. Wow, they had a good run. 🏃‍♂️❤️😎

I’ve worked in the game industry for 50 years and I admit I still often work 12 hour days. It’s is a great honor to work with the industry’s great emerging leaders. But even a guy like me seeks balance by kicking back from time to time. I tell my young CEOs and founders that their kids won’t remember their accomplishments earned by working late; but they will remember that their parent wasn’t home for dinner much. Believe me, I’ve learned that lesson. While there’s no such thing as perfect work/life balance, it’s good to move towards it… even if the balance you find is a wobble.

These shoes were made for walking, and that’s just what they did! 🎵😆🎶

Big Trip in Barcelona! 😆🕺🏻

IN TIME MAGAZINE - FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY
On June 20, 1983, TIME Magazine reported on the Summer CES. As a newcomer, I had been intimidated by the huge, towering spaces built by competitors, Yet TIME covered EA's trade show debut including a photo of our humble booth. The only other photo in the article was of a shaggy nerd that you might have heard about.

1st PUBLIC TRADE SHOW FOR ELECTRONIC ARTS, 40 YEARS AGO TODAY!

The Summer CES in Chicago was hot, humid and intimidating, as various rivals had huge booths and 30 foot towers of game boxes. Me and our EA team had a cute little booth with something new to say so we were one of the few companies that earned coverage in TIME Magazine.

I had some fun meetings and interviews including Steve Levy; was "wining and dining" Ray Tobey, who hadn't yet signed the contract for Skyfox; and had a long script review of The Seven Cities of Gold, also making a note to discuss extra advance payments with Dani Bunten.

"Interactivity is the future," 30 years ago, this once radical concept paved the way for how we experience media today.

TV News Coverage for Summer CES 1993 - The 3DO Update II - VHS

THIRTY YEARS AGO TODAY, June 3, the summer CES Show in Chicago began with yours truly giving the keynote speech and cutting a big ribbon to open the show floor. A bunch of key business meetings followed, including one with Strauss Zelnick, now CEO of -Two Interactive. We all wore 3DO logo buttons!

Our EA FIRST SHIP DAY T-SHIRTS arrived a few hours after we started boxing , so here we are in uniform. I still have that shirt! 😸

A MAGICAL DAY FOR EA, 40 YEARS AGO TODAY!

Everyone pitched in! Tim Mott, leaning over a stack of Hard Hat Macks, was my most important colleague at EA for our first decade. And that’s me with our FIRST EVER ORDER AND SHIPMENT making the handoff from our first retailer's order, at our warehouse in South San Francisco. #1983

FORTY YEARS AGO, on May 20, 1983, every one of our first two dozen or so employees put on EA t-shirts and went to our warehouse in South San Francisco to assemble and pack and ship out our first ever retailer orders for EA's first games.

I later took David Gardner to the airport and had dinner with Ray Tobey and his parents - they'd be needed to legally approve his contract with us for the publishing rights to Skyfox, our first # 1 hit game for the Commodore 64.

My picture before I entered Harvard, from the yearbook that would later become known as “THE FACEBOOK”. Classmates included , , and .

TED4 - THIRTY YEARS AGO TODAY - MAY 8, 1993
In Kobe, Japan, pre-internet, I gave the first TED talk of the day - featuring new 3DO demos - back when there had been only a handful of TED talks. Saul Wurman introduced me by saying that 3DO had gotten so much media coverage that I needed no introduction, and just quipped, "Here's Trip."

It may have seemed like a slam dunk; but even more so it was a real thrill, making my hero Julius Erving the first real person to appear in a video game!! 😆

‘The right to miss’: How Dr. J changed video-game history and paved the way for Madden On the heels of his 1983 NBA title 40 years ago, Julius "Dr. J" Erving sat down with EA Sports to discuss "Dr. J and Larry Bird go One on One." The game would revolutionize the genre.

THE LAUNCH OF EA

The buzz was electric 40 years ago as EA released our first games! A photographer from National Geographic shot photos in my home and you can see me here, playing with a piece of the early EA puzzle. photo credit: Sipa Press/Rex Features

It was 40 years ago, In May of 1983, that we released the first EA games from our earliest artists, including Murder on the Zinderneuf. This is my personal copy with our signature album cover packaging, showing that is has been well played over the years!

THE BIRTH OF GAMES AS AN ART FORM
It was June of 1982. I had founded and incorporated the future Electronic Arts, investing enough of my own cash to last for the first year. I hadn't hired anyone yet and was still on my own, hustling to find my first software artists and still sorting out the business model. Note mentions of the esteemed Dani Bunten and Gilman Louie. #

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30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH
THE 3DO COMPANY WAS GOING PUBLIC!

The sales roadshow began in Europe and arrived in Tokyo on April 7, 1993, as seen in this photo of my calendar. The page on the left was my updated list of 3DO hardware licensees, and a column next to it of additional targets and/or competitors. We'd been going to Osaka a lot, to see Matsush*ta (MEI). Here's a photo of the legendary RJ Mical and some engineers from MEI trying out our "VR" that included 3D models and both stereoscopic visuals and sound.

Join me virtually April 18th at the AARP Games Summit. Learn about new trends, research, insider stories and more! The game is on! Register now.

TIME TRAVEL WITH TRIP: May 18, 1982; I was on the hunt. My calendar shows I paid only $60 to fly from SF to LA and called Bruce Zweig to pitch him on letting EA be the publisher of his groundbreaking Mastertype game (he said no, but we're still friends today). I went into the belly of the beast by meeting with and "spying" on Softsel, the dominant software distributor. As they would interfere with my direct sales strategy, I had already decided not to do business with them. I jotted down ideas while testing some games, including Choplifter, which my friend Ed could win perfectly by holding the two separate game paddles between his legs (he didn't have a joystick). While in Southern California I would meet with Hollywood lawyers, the founders of two fledgling game mags, Computer Gaming World and Softalk, and brilliant game developers including Jim Nitchals and Lane Hauck.

It's official! Spring 2023 has arrived. Friends, may your journey bring more light.

In honor of gamers and GDC this week. let’s TURN THE PAGE TO 3DO 30 YEARS AGO - On a flight to Tokyo I looked forward to dinner with Aki Kodama, our warm and reliable leader of 3DO Japan. I summarized our hardware licensing progress in preparation for meetings on Monday, February 22, 1993, notably with Sony who were by that time taking advantage of our good nature and just spying on us, asking a lot of questions about how we were running our business. I also did an interview with ASCII, the leading game magazine. Later I'd use this page to make a list of documents we would need to produce for our planned IPO.

Happy Saturday! Here’s a mirrored-memory-moment during a documentary shoot a couple years ago in Santa Barbara 🎥🎮 Ah! The stories!

TRAVEL WITH TRIP FOR 3DO LORE! Thirty years ago I was already plotting to take the company public, well before it had any revenue (oops). We wanted to merge with our technology partners at NTG. I'd also arranged for some EA guys like Don Mattrick, and Brian Fargo of Interplay, to meet with our strategic partners at MCA/Universal. After a Sunday dinner with my friend Michael Marks, the best businessman I've ever known, my Monday meetings included explorations with both Apple and Sony about licensing the 3DO hardware. Oh, what might have been!! 🥲

TIME TRAVEL WITH TRIP TO 1983: Here's my EA calendar from March 7, 1983, forty years ago this month.👾We were 75 days from launch. I taught my producers how to focus on how our games were emotionally compelling, not just technology (it's the sizzle, not the steak!). Later I met with Michael Moritz, who would become the titan of Sequoia Capital but was then working as a journalist; and then dined with my fellow EA board member, Woz, and his wife Candi.

TIME TRAVEL WITH TRIP TO MAY 1982: Amazing how 40 years can transform what once seemed like ordinary moments into threads that weave the tapestry of your life. As I set up these meetings, I had just left Apple and was mostly working on the founding of EA. Over the course of 5/11 & 12, 1982 I met with Dave Norman to give him advice about Businessland, a computer retail chain he would found the next year; was helping my friend Dean Hovey with his new Apple peripherals business; and had a long meeting with Joel Billings, founder of SSI, an early computer game company where I served as a board member. I had a warm goodbye lunch with Tom Whitney, Apple's executive vice president of engineering, a truly great man. I also dined with a friend that is now a VP at Cisco and a good friend from school that, like Tom, died far too young.

TIME TRAVEL WITH TRIP: As my family knows, I'm not into clutter and love to recycle! But this is not the case with my trusty Daytimers, which I still use (haha)! Join me in my Wayback Machine to pre-EA, August 1981 where I meet with Dean Hovey, who led the team that created the Apple mouse; Apple's ad agency Chiat/Day; and dined with our fledgling European team, which included newbies Mike Spindler and Jean-Louis Gassee—both of whom went on to have great careers at Apple. The more important item is all the early Apple II software I bought and evaluated - mostly primitive early video games - as I was already planning to launch Electronic Arts the following year. #

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EA founder Trip Hawkins joins web3 studio Games For A Living Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts and a former Apple executive, joins startup Games For A Living as its chief strategy officer.

I love these guys and am delighted to be working with them again!

EA founder Trip Hawkins dives into Web3 with Barcelona-based startup Former Apple executive Trip Hawkins, who founded the company behind the best-selling sports videogame franchise "FIFA", is joining a Web3 startup, looking to take on top blockchain games like Axie Infinity.

on Friday😆 Check out my calendar from Jan. 10-11, 1993

I was returning from CES in Vegas with tons of notes for follow-up and discussion with 3DO staff.

on Friday!

MICROSOFT WILL WIN FIGHT TO ACQUIRE ACTIVISION
Do Governments Really Care About Console Geeks or Overseas Monopolies?
https://medium.com//3988f062f9e7

MICROSOFT WILL WIN FIGHT TO ACQUIRE ACTIVISION Do Governments Really Care About Console Geeks or Overseas Monopolies?

THANK YOU ALL for reaching out on my birthday! One of my gifts was an issue of MAD Magazine that's almost as old as I am. The page shown here is part of a parody of Consumer Reports, the non-profit that tests and ranks products, in this case whiskeys and "leading anti-freezes". The testing staff drink until they're blotto enough to rank an anti-freeze 2nd highest, just ahead of the famous brand, Sit Chivas. HAPPY NEW YEAR!?!! MAD was as socially inappropriate as possible, then and now. As a big fan, I was truly honored many years ago when MAD did a parody of some of EA's top games.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! This trip around the sun has been quite the ride! 🚀🎉