Top 25 High Tech Leaders in Dallas: Mike Wilson, The

Mike Wilson CEO, GODGames

In a thriving gaming community dubbed "The Dallas Gaming Mafia" for its retail muscle, Mike Wilson must be a capo. The 30-year-old earned his stripes at Interactive Visual Systems/DWANGO (dial-up wide area network gaming operation), the first nationwide online gaming service, and he co-founded ION Storm in 1997 before launching The Gathering of Developers (GOD) a year later.

After publishing some of the industry's best-selling games, including the Railroad Tycoon II series, Wilson got an offer he couldn't refuse: his company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Take Two Interactive Software. Now, GOD is to video games what Miramax is to Hollywood: a creative powerhouse that releases innovative, awardwinning titles under the umbrella of a buttoned-down parent company. Wilson takes great pride in GOD's reputation as an autonomous publisher catering to developers. "We're not calling all the shots, but we still treat artists with a level of respect that's hard to find. And we're not worried about where our own funding is coming from," says Wilson, who gets access to Take Two's worldwide distribution network. "There's just a little more red tape now."

Copyright D Magazine Jul 01, 2001
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