Kojima, Mizuguchi, Kawashima in PGA top Digital 50

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a trade organization of TV, film, and new media producers (by “new media” we mean electronic media like software and podcasts as opposed to old-school TV). They’ve picked their 50 most innovative producers in the field of Digital Entertainment.

Many of us remember Testsuya Mizuguchi for Sega’s Rez (who’s old-school enough to have the box for the Dreamcast release of this game?). But many more of us know him for founding Q Entertainment, thereby bringing forth to the world games like Lumines (PSP), Lumines Live (Xbox 360), Meteos (DS), Gunpey-R (under development for DS), and Every Extend Extra (PSP).

Hideo Kojima is basically Konami’s writer, producer, director, or any combination of the three for every single Metal Gear Solid game out there (and if there was one Metal Gear Solid he didn’t take part in, I personally haven’t heard of it because it must have sucked, hehehe). Kojima is Metal Gear Solid. So the recognition he’s received is not surprising.

And then there’s Ryuta Kawashima, neuroscientist, the Brain Age guy. It’s not your typical game, and he’s not your typical producer, but the fact is, “new media” is a big umbrella. You and I and all of us are lucky that we have producers (and the occasional brain scientist) who explore different avenues for our handhelds and consoles.

By the way, maybe you’d like to know that the PGA has a New Media Council. It’s got some lofty goals, and we’re glad that game producers get some representation.

The hard part about producing things for electronic media is dealing with the demand for more technology, technology, technology. I personally get pissed off by friends who insult my favorite games because they want the exact same thing, only with more pixels. Yeah, we whine when the graphics aren’t perfect. But you know what, those graphics don’t mean sh@t when there’s no story, design, or idea to glue those pixels to.

Better technology exists so that the better producers can make better games. So let’s applaud the better producers.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a trade organization of TV, film, and new media producers (by “new media” we mean electronic media like software and podcasts as opposed to old-school TV). They’ve picked their 50 most innovative producers in the field of Digital Entertainment.

Many of us remember Testsuya Mizuguchi for Sega’s Rez (who’s old-school enough to have the box for the Dreamcast release of this game?). But many more of us know him for founding Q Entertainment, thereby bringing forth to the world games like Lumines (PSP), Lumines Live (Xbox 360), Meteos (DS), Gunpey-R (under development for DS), and Every Extend Extra (PSP).

Hideo Kojima is basically Konami’s writer, producer, director, or any combination of the three for every single Metal Gear Solid game out there (and if there was one Metal Gear Solid he didn’t take part in, I personally haven’t heard of it because it must have sucked, hehehe). Kojima is Metal Gear Solid. So the recognition he’s received is not surprising.

And then there’s Ryuta Kawashima, neuroscientist, the Brain Age guy. It’s not your typical game, and he’s not your typical producer, but the fact is, “new media” is a big umbrella. You and I and all of us are lucky that we have producers (and the occasional brain scientist) who explore different avenues for our handhelds and consoles.

By the way, maybe you’d like to know that the PGA has a New Media Council. It’s got some lofty goals, and we’re glad that game producers get some representation.

The hard part about producing things for electronic media is dealing with the demand for more technology, technology, technology. I personally get pissed off by friends who insult my favorite games because they want the exact same thing, only with more pixels. Yeah, we whine when the graphics aren’t perfect. But you know what, those graphics don’t mean sh@t when there’s no story, design, or idea to glue those pixels to.

Better technology exists so that the better producers can make better games. So let’s applaud the better producers.