Trip Hawkins

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William M. 'Trip' Hawkins III (born 1953) is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate.

Hawkins was the Director of Strategy and Marketing at Apple Computer in 1982 when he left to found Electronic Arts (EA), a video game publisher. Electronic Arts had a successful run for many years under Hawkins' leadership. It is now the world's largest video game publisher.

Though he remained Chairman of the Board, Hawkins transitioned from EA in 1991 to form 3DO, a video game console company. 3DO was formed in partnership with several other companies including EA. Upon its release in 1993, the 3DO was the most powerful video game console at the time. Unfortunately, it was also the most expensive, costing a hefty USD$700, compared to the low $100's of other systems. Sales were poor and hopes for the system were smashed in 1994 with the arrival of the Sony PlayStation, which beat the 3DO in power and price.

In 1996 3DO stopped developing the system and transitioned into a video game developer, making games for the PlayStation, PC and other consoles. However, due to poor sales of its titles, it went bankrupt in May 2003. Hawkins decided to make branding a focus and 6-9 month production timetables for games. Quality suffered as did sales. Hawkins had used cash reserves to bail out the failing company before, but declined to do so a final time. 3DO is now out of business. The defunct company sold most of its intellectual property to the publisher Ubisoft.

In late 2003, Hawkins launched a new video game development company called Digital Chocolate. The company focuses on developing games for handheld devices.

In 2005, Hawkins became the eighth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

Trip designed his own major at Harvard University in Strategy and Applied Game Theory, and then went on to receive an MBA from Stanford University.