Apple Most Influential Company To Video Game Executives, Says Survey

A survey of 1,000 game industry professionals who will be attending the upcoming London Game Conference named Steve Jobs and Apple's iPhone as the most influential shapers of the video game industry. Jobs led the poll regarding people shaping video games with 26 percent of the vote, followed by Valve co-founder Gabe Newell at 16 percent, Nintendo designer Shiegru Miyamoto at 7 percent, world wide web creator Tim Berners-Lee at 4 percent and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at 3 percent. The iPhone, meanwhile, was cited by 17 percent of voters as the product that has most shaped the industry, followed by the Wii at 7 percent, Xbox Live and the original PlayStation at 3 percent each, and Valve's Steam digital distribution service at 2 percent. Eurogamer reports that 46 percent of poll respondents named Jobs somewhere in their top 5 industry shapers, while 53 percent included the iPhone among their top 5. The London Games Conference takes place Thursday, November 10. The event focuses on issues facing video game executives, including the transition to digital, cloud gaming, monetization, and forward-looking theories.