Jason Rubin | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Rubin speaking at Step into the Rift, 2015 | |
| Born | 1970 (age 54–55) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1984–present |
| Employers |
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Jason Rubin (born 1970) is an American video game director, writer, and comic book creator. He is best known for theCrash Bandicoot andJak and Daxter series of games which were produced byNaughty Dog, the game development studio he co-founded with partner and childhood friendAndy Gavin in 1986.[1][2] He was the president ofTHQ[3] before its closure due to bankruptcy on January 23, 2013.[4] Rubin is the vice president of Metaverse Content atMeta Platforms.
Rubin and Andy Gavin formedNaughty Dog in 1984. Later that year, they published their first game together — a budgetware title called Ski Crazed. In 1989, Rubin and Gavin sold their first game toElectronic Arts: arole-playing game calledKeef the Thief.[5] He took a brief hiatus from school and game design to move toLos Angeles and attempt a career as a screenwriter, but after little success, he returned to school and game design.[6]
While Gavin was an undergraduate inHaverford College and Rubin was attending theUniversity of Michigan, they collaborated with each other on their next title: a role-playing game calledRings of Power.[7] The game began as a PC title, but during meetings atElectronic Arts Gavin spotted a reverse engineeredSega Genesis, pitched a slightly modified version of the title toTrip Hawkins, and the title became the duo's first console game.Rings of Power still has a cult following today.
After much persuasion from Hawkins, Rubin and Gavin took a leap of faith and started designingWay of the Warrior, which was heavily inspired byMortal Kombat, for the3DO console. They demoed the game atCES and received interest from Skip Paul, former chairman ofAtari's Coin-Op division and then head of the newUniversal Interactive Studios. Skip signed the pair to a three title development deal at Universal, moving them out to the Universal Studios lot and introducing them toMark Cerny, who worked with the pair on the design of their next title, which was a "Donkey Kong Country-inspired" 3D platformer calledCrash Bandicoot.
Crash Bandicoot turned out to be an enormous success, andSony used the main character as their unofficialPlayStation mascot for several years. Due to the impressive visuals which the developer was able to achieve from the PlayStation console,[8] the game served as a quality benchmark that all other game developers aimed to match, and the series spawned three sequels byNaughty Dog selling over 26 million units.[citation needed] The series continues with other development teams, having sold more than 40 million units worldwide.[citation needed]
After their success withCrash Bandicoot, Rubin and Gavin began working onJak and Daxter, a franchise that sold 9 million units through the various Naughty Dog incarnations.[citation needed] The series continued with other developers and as of 2017 had sold 15 million copies sold worldwide.[9] Before Jak and Daxter's release, Sony purchased Naughty Dog, which became a wholly owned subsidiary ofSony Computer Entertainment America in 2001. As a result,Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was developed exclusively for the PlayStation 2.
In their 18 years runningNaughty Dog, they created fourteen original games includingMath Jam (1985),Ski Crazed (1986),Dream Zone (1987),Keef the Thief (1989),Rings of Power (1991),Way of the Warrior (1994),Crash Bandicoot (1996),Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (1997),Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998),Crash Team Racing (1999),Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001),Jak II (2003),Jak 3 (2004) andJak X: Combat Racing (2005). Together these games have sold over 35 million units and generated over $1 billion in revenue.[10]
Just days after making a controversial speech at 2004'sD.I.C.E. Summit that criticized publishers for not recognizing and promoting talent responsible for creating games,[11] Rubin publicly announced his departure fromNaughty Dog.[12]
On May 29, 2012, Rubin joined the struggling video game publisherTHQ as president, and was responsible for all of THQ's worldwide product development, marketing and publishing operations. At the time Rubin joined THQ, the company had laid off hundreds of its employees[13] and the stock had lost over 99% of its value from its high.[14]
According to Game Industry International, "placing Jason Rubin at the company's helm was unquestionably a good move — the Naughty Dog founder has an enviable track record and quite rightly commands the respect of the industry —, but by the time he took the role, THQ's stock had already crashed and layoffs were well underway. The company was mortally wounded; Rubin's failure to resuscitate his terminally ill patient should not reflect in any way on his own talents and abilities".[15]
To save the teams and products management took the company through a restructuring. As part of that process, THQ filed forChapter 11[16] with the intention to sell off its assets at auction.[17]
Soon after, THQ management announced astalking horse bid for the company by Clear Lake Capital for $60 million.[18] Handling the sale of THQ was Centerview Partners[19] Skip Paul,[20] a former colleague of Jason Rubin.[21]
Creditors said the proposed sale of THQ in bankruptcy court benefited current THQ management, including Rubin.[22] Early creditor objections and court documents were not kind to THQ management.[23] Though not as widely publicized as the initial criticism, Judge Walwrath put an end to the entire mismanagement line of argument when she called it a "conspiracy theory" on the record.[24] Additionally, same Creditors that made the initial accusations ultimately took the unusual step of releasing THQ Management, including Rubin, of any malfeasance in the company's Official Plan of Liquidation[25]
Rubin's public statements made at the time are clear. Management was always open to, and actively seeking, higher bidders at the same time as they tried to hold the company together, both for the benefit of the Company and the Creditors:
Our Chapter 11 process allows for other bidders to make competing offers for THQ. So while we are extremely excited about the Clearlake [stalking horse] opportunity, we won't be able to say that the deal is done for a month or so. Whatever happens, the teams and products look likely to end up together and in good hands. That means you can still pre-orderMetro: Last Light,Company of Heroes 2, andSouth Park: The Stick of Truth. Our teams are still working on those titles as you read this, and all other rumored titles, like thefourthSaints Row, theHomefront sequel, and a lot more are also still in the works.
— Jason Rubin, THQ Press Release[26]
Judge Mary F. Walrath decided to have an auction for the individual assets,[27] and competing offers for the separate parts of THQ prevailed. Though many employees lost their jobs in the bankruptcy, the development teams atRelic (bought bySega),Volition (bought byKoch Media), and THQ Montreal (purchased byUbisoft) remained intact, as did much ofVigil which becameCrytek USA, and all of the THQ products in the works survived the bankruptcy have come or are scheduled to come out soon.[28][29][30][31]
In December 2012, THQ partnered up with The Humble Bundle Team at Wolfire Games to make the Humble THQ Bundle raising over 5 million dollars, much of it going to charity. Rubin donated over $10,000 to charity as part of the event.[32]
DuringE3 2014 it was announced that Rubin joinedOculus VR, heading up the Oculus first-party content initiatives in Seattle, San Francisco, Menlo Park, Dallas and Irvine.[33][34]
In 2021, following Oculus parent company Facebook's rebranding as Meta, Rubin became VP of Metaverse Content, leading the company's VR and Metaverse Content production teams, the internal Studios, Publishing, and Developer Ecosystem teams.[35]
Rubin also created two comic book series.The Iron Saint, originally known asIron and the Maiden, was published by Aspen Comics,[36] and including artwork designed by artists asJoe Madureira,Jeff Matsuda,Francis Manapul andJoel Gomez. "Mysterious Ways" was published by TopCow Comics[37] and includes artwork from Tyler Kirkham.
Rubin also co-founded an Internet startup calledFlektor withNaughty Dog co-founderAndy Gavin and former HBO executive Jason Kay. In May 2007, the company was sold toFox Interactive Media, which is a division ofNews Corp.[38] Fox described the company as: "a next-generation Web site that provides users with a suite of Web-based tools to transform their photos and videos into dynamic slideshows, postcards, live interactive presentations and video mash-ups." In October 2007,Flektor partnered with its sister company,Myspace, andMTV to provide instant audience feedback via polls for the interactive MySpace / MTV Presidential Dialogues series with then-presidential candidate SenatorBarack Obama.[39]
| Year | Game title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Math Jam | Lead programmer |
| 1986 | Ski Crazed | |
| 1987 | Dream Zone | Lead artist |
| 1989 | Keef the Thief | Director |
| 1991 | Rings of Power | Director, game designer |
| 1994 | Way of the Warrior | Director, producer, game designer |
| 1996 | Crash Bandicoot | Director |
| 1997 | Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back | |
| 1998 | Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped | |
| 1999 | Crash Team Racing | |
| 2001 | Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy | |
| 2003 | Jak II | |
| 2004 | Jak 3 |
Jason Rubin was a longtime fixture of the gaming industry, founding Naughty Dog with Andy Gavin in 1986.
Although we have sometimes claimed to have started in 1986, we were just working on garage titles back then.
The series has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| Video games |
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