Your Tech Story

electronic arts

Electronic Arts

Trip Hawkins Says Accepting Failure Is The Path Of The Entrepreneurial Journey

Leave a Comment / Founder, Tech Story / By

When you are starting something way out of your league, patience is a very important factor. A part of our young generation is going to be future entrepreneurs. And, they are expected to accept failure and be optimistic at every moment of life. The entrepreneurial journey is not a bed of roses especially for those going unorthodox. Our society is not a huge fan of gaming. Building a career revolving around gaming is a far-fetched dream. But, Trip Hawkins proved that one can excel in any field if the person is dedicated to it. Trip Hawkins is the owner of more than one gaming company. But, he became famous all over the world for founding Electronic Arts.

Early Life

Born and brought up in a small of California, Trip Hawkins had a very bright and creative childhood. Both of his parents were equally artistic. Though his father was a part of the growing electronics industry, he later delved into becoming an artist. His mother was a great musician and also wrote poems. Maybe the creative family background of Trip gave him the idea of designing everything of his own.

Trip Hawkins
Image Source: Google Images

Into the gaming world

It was in the 1960s when Trip started playing simulation board games. He played many games but his favorite one was Strat-O-Matic. He became addicted to the game and more than that he was keen about how it is working. The designing part intrigued him and led him to build his own game of a similar type. It was in 1973 that he builds the gaming but failed to sell enough copies of it.

But, this was the eye-opening moment of his life. He was in school using computers like every other kid but in a more advanced way. He really enjoyed the entrepreneurial side of his life. Though he failed in the first try, he made up his mind.

The Perfect Business Mind

It was in the 1970s when Trip was working with computers, coding and game development in a full-fledged way. This was the time when microprocessors for the first time invaded the electronics market. So, this gave Trip the idea of doing thorough research on market demand.

Before launching his own company, Trip studied how many people are having internet access, the rate of public demand and how long it will be there.

Working at Apple Computer

Before founding Electronic Arts, Trip worked at Apple. But, his planning didn’t stop and it took him eleven years for implementing it. The trip also went to Harvard University and there he designed his own course for studying game theory. The trip also did an MBA because he was interested in the business market equally. But, he noticed nobody in Apple wasn’t really a gaming enthusiast.

A gaming Pro with a business degree thus left Apple after working for four years. But, Trip admits that working closely with Steve Jobs helped him a lot in building his own empire.

Founding Electronic Arts

In January 1982, Trip approached Don Valentine, a Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist. He offered Trip office space and he finally accepted it. When Trip established the company he named it Amazin’ Software which was later renamed Electronic Arts. When Trip founded the company he invested $200,000 from his own pocket.

Electronic Arts are headquartered in Redwood City, California. Today, it is known as the second-largest gaming company in the American and European markets in terms of revenue and market capitalization. In 2018, the company’s annual revenue summed up to $5.15 billion. There are almost 9,000 employees working for the company.

After Electronic Arts

In 1991, Trip formed 3DO, a video game console company. After a couple of years, it became the most powerful video game console. In 1996, 3DO became a video game developer but it went out of business in 2003.

But, Trip didn’t give up that easily. In late 2003, he came up with a new video game development company, Digital Chocolate. In 2012, Trip resigned from the company and joined the board of directors of Extreme Reality.

In 2005, Trip became the eighth person to get enrolled in the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science Hall of Fame.

Trip Hawkins : Silicon Valley Entrepreneur & the Founder of the Gaming Pioneer Electronic Arts

Founder, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By

“I’ve never been content with a straightforward job,” says Trip Hawkins, the American entrepreneur and the founder of startups like Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. This may be the reason how a person who was once handling one of the most successful video game companies (EA), left it to pursue a new challenge of running a startup (3DO) all over again. Trip Hawkins, who has registered his name as the eighth person into the ‘Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame for his contribution to the video game industry, believes that if one wants to succeed in life, he has to be ready to fail first.

Hawkins was born as William Murray Hawkins III on 28 December 1953, in Pasadena, California, U.S. He was a bright student and a video game lover. According to Hawkins, every time he played video games, it switched on his brain. Therefore, eventually, it became his passion.

trip-hawkins
Image Source: playworks.org

After completing his high school education from a local school, he entered Harvard University. Interestingly, here he majored and graduated in a self-designed course, Strategy and Applied Game Theory.

As soon as he completed his college, he joined Apple Inc. as the Director of Product Marketing in 1978. He was one of the first fifty employees of Apple. During this time, the company saw its first most successful years and also filed for its first IPO in 1982. The company also registered its name among the Fortune 500 companies and increased the number of employees to one thousand people.

In 1982, Hawkins decided to start his own financing venture named Amazin’ Software and met Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to talk about the plan and raise funds for it. On the advice of Valentine, Hawkins left his job at Apple and shifted to a Sequoia office for his startup. On 27 May 1982, Hawkins started Amazin’ Software investing US$200,000 from his personal savings.

At the same time, he started working on his next startup Electronic Arts and hired a few ex-fellow colleagues from Apple. By November 1982, the company had hired over eleven people, and it was relocated to San Mateo.

Hawkins incorporated Electronic Arts on May 27, 1982. In the beginning, the company functioned with name Amazin’ Software, but most of the employees did not like the name and suggested for SoftArt, but eventually, ended up naming the company Electronic Arts. The company started building video games, and their marketing strategy included dealing with retailers directly. It was a great marketing move, and the company started running successfully.

Hawkins has always called the developers artists, and that is why the company name includes Arts in it. The next different thing that he chose to do in marketing was to give photo credit to his game developers on the game covers. In fact, the company released its first ever video game ad featuring the developers in it.

In 1987, EA released its first internally developed game named Skate or Die. The mega-hits from EA are Madden NFL, The Sims and Rock Band. In the early 1990s, the company started producing console games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

In 1991, Trip Hawkins stepped down as EA’s CEO, after successfully leading the company for 12 years, to found another startup named 3DO. Currently, the company headquarter is located in Redwood City, California and Andrew Wilson heads it as the CEO.

3DO was a video game console company, which in 1993 released the most powerful and expensive gaming console of that time, costing US$599. Being at a higher price, the company failed to sell the gaming console, and eventually, stopped making them. Later in 1996, the company started producing video games that also failed to support the revenues, and it became bankrupt.

After shutting down 3DO, Hawkins went to found another video game company named Digital Chocolate, in 2003. The company produces video games for handheld devices. After serving the company as the CEO for over 9 years, Hawkins stepped down from the position in 2012.

In the same year, he joined the board of directors of Israeli technology company Extreme Reality, and in 2013 became the senior advisor to the board of directors of NativeX. He also joined the advisory board at Skillz, in 2014.

According to one of his interviews, when he was asked about if he was not an entrepreneur what would he be? He answered that he would have been a professor as he assumes himself a natural teacher.

In 2016, he joined the University of California as Professor of Practice in the Technology Management Program.