To kick off our first IVGHOF Inductee Interview Series*, Trip Hawkins, recipient of the 2025 Walter Day Lifetime Achievement, sat down with the IVGHOF’s own Lonnie McDonald for a wide-reaching discussion on his career up to this point, including forward-looking topics such as AI and new forms of entertainment.
“…I bet I could make a better game.”
Hawkins traces his journey from a childhood love of strategy games and sports simulations to his foundational roles at Apple and the creation of Electronic Arts. Emphasizing the unique power of interactivity to foster human connection and learning, he viewed software as a sophisticated new medium rather than mere amusement. By merging Hollywood publishing models with Silicon Valley technology, he aimed to elevate developers as artists and modernize how games are experienced in the home.
“The things that really matter now, first of all, gamers are…interested in the social connections around gaming.”
Beyond his history leading EA and 3DO, Hawkins argues that the future of gaming is being shaped less by raw technology and more by social connection and convenience. Players primarily want shared, socially competitive experiences—playing with friends, rivals, and large online communities—and this social value fuels discovery through friends, streamers, and platforms like Twitch. Building on Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruption, Hawkins says the industry has moved past merely achieving “good enough” performance and is now optimizing for convenience, with cloud gaming letting players access massive libraries anywhere, on any screen, without owning hardware. He sees cloud infrastructure and AI as mutually reinforcing forces driving enormous investment, rapid innovation, and new business models, even as they compete for data-center resources.
“The correct attitude to have about life is that you’re working on yourself and you’re trying to grow up. You’re trying to be the best version of yourself you can be. And that consists of having purpose, having passion, and having a mission.”
Reflecting on his legacy, Hawkins views his greatest impact as enabling creators and shaping sports games like Madden, helping define how depth, systems, and long-term engagement now define fun in modern games. Hawkins broadens the conversation to life philosophy, saying the “correct attitude” is continual self-development guided by three distinct ideas: purpose (what comes naturally to you), passion (what you freely choose to care about), and mission (the deeper work of healing and growth shaped by early life experiences). Together, he presents a worldview in which creativity, games, and life itself are about learning, complexity, and becoming the best version of yourself over time.
Watch the full Trip Hawkins Interview below or on YouTube
*About the IVGHOF Inductee Interview Series
Our Inductees are all special and unique in some way. Since the beginning of the IVGHOF, we have set out to honor those people, games and institutions that have set new standards, ushered in key innovations, accomplished achievements without precedent and paved the way for others to follow.
This tradition highlights the stories that built an industry and made interactive gaming the number one form of entertainment in the world that it is today. It is with that context that the “IVGHOF Inductee Interview Series” helps to call attention to those individuals that made a difference and seeks to understand their views on the past, present and future of our industry, including the challenges they had to work through as well as views on the challenges yet to come.