Video games

Yuji Naka

Programmer who co-created Sonic the Hedgehog at Sega

Born 1965

Jerry Lawson

Engineer who led the first cartridge-based video-game console

1940 – 2011

Sid Meier

Creator of the Civilization strategy-game series

Born 1954

Markus Persson

Swedish creator of Minecraft, the best-selling video game in history

Born 1979

Hiroshi Yamauchi

Nintendo president who turned a playing-card firm into a video-game giant

1927 – 2013

John Romero

Game designer who co-created Doom and Quake at id Software

Born 1967

John Carmack

Programmer behind Doom and Quake and pioneer of 3D games and VR

Born 1970

Will Wright

Game designer who created SimCity and The Sims

Born 1960

Shigeru Miyamoto

Nintendo designer who created Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong

Born 1952

Satoru Iwata

Programmer turned Nintendo president who launched the DS and Wii

1959 – 2015

Ralph Baer

German-American inventor of the first home video-game console

1922 – 2014

Gabe Newell

Co-founder of Valve, creator of Half-Life and the Steam store

Born 1962

Chen Tianqiao

Founder of Shanda, China’s online-gaming pioneer, and brain-science philanthropist

Ken Kutaragi

Sony engineer known as the father of the PlayStation

Born 1950

Ding Lei

Founder and CEO of NetEase, a Chinese gaming and internet giant

Born 1971

Tim Sweeney

Founder of Epic Games and creator of the Unreal Engine

Richard Garriott

Creator of the Ultima games and private astronaut

Born 1961

Nolan Bushnell

Founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, often called the father of the video-game industry

Born 1943

Hideo Kojima

Japanese game creator of Metal Gear and Death Stranding

Born 1963

Gunpei Yokoi

Nintendo inventor of the Game Boy and Game & Watch

1941 – 1997