From arcades to apps

Video game pioneer Seamus Blackley is best known as co-creator of the Xbox. After working at Microsoft, Blackley ran the game talent division at Creative Arts Agency in Los Angeles, representing legendary designers such as Will Wright (The Sims) and Time Schafer (Psychonauts). Most recently, Blackley launched the game development company Innovative Leisure with an eye toward inventing a new genre of video arcade game apps for on-the-go users of mobile platforms. Toward that end, he recruited a team of legendary programmers from Atari including the creators of Asteroids, Centipede, and Missile Command, among others, which he calls a “Jedi Council of video game design.” According to a profile of Innovative Leisure in Time magazine, “The 99-cent download has become the new quarter drop, and the old Atari guys see the new medium as an opportunity to rethink classic game play.”