EA founder Hawkins joins AIAS Hall of Fame

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced the latest addition to its "Hall of Fame", with Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins being inducted into the elite group at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas.

The annual award of a Hall of Fame place has become a key part of the DICE Summit schedule, and is given by the AIAS to an individual who is considered to have made a significant impact of contribution to the industry.

Hawkins, who started out his career at Apple, founded Electronic Arts in 1982, and is credited with the creation of the Madden NFL series - still one of the giant company's most popular franchises.

During the 90's, he parted company with EA and created 3DO, which launched the ambitious but ill-fated 3DO console, but also had a certain degree of success with the creation of innovative products such as graphical MMORPG Meridian 59 before slipping into bankruptcy around two years ago.

Since then, Hawkins has founded another new company targeting an entirely new sector of the industry - mobile games publisher Digital Chocolate, which has achieved some early success with its range of titles aimed at causal gamers.

Hawkins joins an impressive set of other luminaries in the Hall of Fame, including inaugural winner Shigeru Miyamoto, Firaxis' Sid Meier, Square Enix' Hironobu Sakaguchi, id Software's John Carmack, Maxis' Will Wright, Sega's Yu Suzuki and last year's winner, Peter Molyneux.

"It is an incredible honour to be recognised by my distinguished peers in the industry," commented Hawkins. "It is a great privilege to join the industry's greatest luminaries and be one of few to be named an AIAS Hall of Fame inductee. I love this industry and am not finished pushing its boundaries."