Trip Hawkins
Founder of Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate
🌍 American · Born December 28, 1953
About
William M. Trip Hawkins III is an American entrepreneur and pioneer in the video game industry, best known as the founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Born in Pasadena, California, Hawkins attended Harvard University, where he designed his own major in Strategy and Applied Game Theory. He later earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
In 1978, Hawkins joined Apple Inc. as the Director of Strategy and Marketing, working closely with Steve Jobs during the company's formative years and initial public offering. He left Apple in 1982 to establish Electronic Arts, driven by a vision to treat game developers as creative artists. Under his leadership as CEO, EA grew into one of the largest and most influential video game publishers in the world, pioneering iconic sports franchises and innovative software publishing models.
Hawkins transitioned out of EA in the early 1990s to launch The 3DO Company, an ambitious effort to pioneer a standardized high-performance video game console platform. Following 3DO's transition to software development and eventual liquidation in 2003, Hawkins founded Digital Chocolate, a leading developer of mobile and casual web games. In recent years, Hawkins has advised tech companies and joined Web3 gaming startups to help shape the next era of digital entertainment.
Intelligence Summary
Joined Apple Inc.
Became Director of Strategy and Marketing, helping navigate Apple's early corporate strategy and 1980 IPO.
Founded Electronic Arts
Left Apple to start Amazin' Software, which was renamed Electronic Arts, creating a publisher centered on software artists.
Founded The 3DO Company
Established 3DO to create a next-generation CD-ROM based video game system, stepping down as EA CEO in 1994 to focus on 3DO.
Founded Digital Chocolate
Created Digital Chocolate to focus on emerging mobile games and social web game platforms.
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame
Inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame as the eighth recipient for his contributions to the video game industry.
Stepped Down from Digital Chocolate
Resigned as CEO of Digital Chocolate to transition into board and advisory roles in tech and gaming.
Joined Games For A Living
Joined Web3 gaming company Games For A Living (GFAL) as Chief Strategy Officer and board member.
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All data sourced from verified public references.