Kotaku
I've had a pet project I've been working on for years, three of them if my memory is right. It started as a simple idea: You can judge a lot from a person's desk. I bet you could judge just as much from their home entertainment system. So I decided it would be fun to try and track down some pictures from the work desks and home gaming set-ups of the people who work in and cover the video game industry. Simple right? Not so much.
Turns out that many of the people are either too busy or too private to want to participate in such a project. To make matters worse, there's always fear that something sitting on someone's desk, that ends up in a photo, could actually be news worthy. Like a secret project or the next big thing. But I didn't give up and about once a year I'd harass a bunch of game developers for photos. Finally, this year, the harassment paid off.
What started as a trickle of photos turned quickly into the collection of galleries you'll find on the jump: More than 40 different photo galleries from 17 studios, seven publications, two industry movers and shakers and a couple of fun surprises.
You'll get to see the desk of such greats as Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux and Tetsuya Mizuguchi along with plenty of others. Remember you can comment both on the next page and on each individual photo if you click on them.
If I find there is interest, I will try to periodically update this gallery of galleries with more developers, journalists and industry movers and shakers. Have fun.
DEVELOPERS
2K Games
ASTRO Gaming
Buzz Monkey Software
Capcom
Eat, Sleep, Play
Electronic Arts
Firaxis Games
Flying Lab Software
Gearbox Software
Harmonix Music
Incognito Entertainment
Insomniac Games
Kojima Productions
Lionhead Studios
NanaOn-Sha
Naughty Dog
NCSoft
NetDevil
Neversoft Entertainment
Ninja Theory
Pandemic Studios
Petroglyph Games
THQ
Q Entertainment
JOURNALISTS
Blue's News
BoingBoing
EGM
The Escapist
GameLife
Joystiq
Kotaku
MTV
Slashdot Games
VE3D
VH1
INDUSTRY FOLK
MISCELLANIES
I AM 8-BIT
Penny Arcade
Whorecraft
Video Games Live
Comments
Yes there is interest. Now let me lurk through.
Thanks by the way, very entertaining.
What have we learned kids? Game developers are messy Jessies'!!
Yeah, good stuff, some good names too :)
Haha, no wonder it's taking Peter so long to finish Fable 2..he can't even find his keyboard!
Makes me feel good about owning a Dell monitor..
The pictures are great but the thing that really stands out is that Crecente post an article @ 12:08
Forty, not fourty.
And AWESOME project. Keep the photos coming!
*commencing slacking at work while I browse...*
Whoa! Great feature. Thanks for this interesting glimpse...
I'd like to add something to my first comment...
Some of these guys have huge screens. Wait, FUCKING huge screens. Seriously.
61" and upwards? Good god. Do want.
Especially Meier's and Jaffe's setups are sweetness imho.
Cool idea. Interesting to see these photos. May favs? Mike from Penny Arcade and Mizuguchi's setups.
Nice, make a list of "Gaming's Greatest" and include yourselves. And I thought your heads couldn't get any bigger.
um...what is Xeni Jardin?
sorry for double post.
is it that blonde journalist?
I Thank you Brian because I love these features at Kotaku.
How is Alain Tascan for EA Montreal playing his 360 upside down?
Greaterst Project ever, i want more of this stuff!
Very cool, I'd love to see some art department staff work spaces in the future.
Lol, I love how Garriot sent you a photo of his whole house :p
Btw, Gearbox looks like it'd be a blast to work for. Win = retro gaming wall of fame :)
Darn. I was hoping Bashcraft would have a picture of his wife on his desk. Oh well.
No Jade Raymond or Cliffy B gamerooms?
I love the Kotaku faceplate on your 360 Brian :)
Warning: One of Dez's photos has a bit of nudity in it. a011 is NSFW.
Cool feature, Brian. Very interesting to see everyone's setup! Also, a great way to make me incredibly jealous of everyone. I think my setups is probably the most like Tori's.
I like Dan Hsu's TV. I know what his GT is now too....
I'm going to be spending my few spare hours peeking through all of these.
Amazing Work.
No chance for a reader feature? I'd love to show off my little corner rig
@opt2not: crap that's spill over from an old gallery
fixing now.
Damn, Randy Pitchford's office FTW !
I'm in awe.
Props to Fahey on the Dr. Who
<_<
Also! A very interesting feature. I'm just weird enough to like spying on peoples' personal spaces. >_>
p.s. Dan Hsu give me your TV. Please? <3
Warhawk 2 poster next to all the blurred out stuff in the incognito office. I wonder what the white board has on it :)
@huginn:
That would be a cool idea. i want to strut my stuff.
These setups are pretty bad ass. Makes me wish i had more money.
Where is the NSFW fish in a011 from the Whorecraft section. You can see the girls boobs.
@Earthslide: that's a dev kit. He probably never even uses the disc drive.
Ahahaha! This is brilliant!
Very cool project, would love to see more additions.
I'm surprised none of the comments have been people posting their own gaming/entertainment center rigs/ their bedrooms.
CEO of Insomniac Games and he keeps the PS3 to himself and makes the kids play a PS2. Classic.
i love the fact that in one of the pictures for David Jaffe there is a website with a picture of Sweet Tooth.
@lurkaku: ...and with that this feature will never come back.
Ew Tascan's face, DO NOT WANT!
not to be a dick or anything, but Kyle Orland's game room set up is a little weaksauce, while Brian's is pretty awesome. I think Brian just wanted to one-up Joystiq.
oh, and I have the same model TV as Gabe, so I've got that going for me...
Love Sid Meier's Firaxis office desk, 4 PC's (could be 3 PCs with 1 Dev Kit), 3 monitors, 2 sets of speakers...where does he put his ENORMOUS brain?
Brian has his own bobble head? lol
That's a cute chair sign you got there Crecente.
Excellent stuff! That was a rather nice way to spend some free time going through those photos. :D
Very cool project and galleries. Randy Pitchford's office is amazing, its like a museum dedicated to gaming. Truly awesome.
Jajajajja, great stuff! This is why I love Kotaku :D
Love the "Obsessive Compulsive" doll on Peter Molyneux's desk. Also, all the NES games on Fahey's game room are sweet, I certainly still have mine, although not showcased.
Awesome feature. I was thinking about cleaning my desk earlier today, but I changed my mind now, I want to be like the stars!
If ever Kotaku posted something worthy of a Digg, it's this. Well, and the whole "Sony blackballs Kotaku" thing, but that was soooo 2007.
I would really like to see Miyamoto's and Kojima's desk. You think there is any chance of that?
Very cool feature really enjoyed it! I did a similar thing on my website with our own users posting pics of what we dubbed "Playgrounds". Always cool to see what things a person keeps around them for good energy, inspiration, or to keep them focused.
Maybe at some point (if this takes off) Kotaku would be interested in allowing for a "Show Us Your Playground" section for its users. Anyhow, as I said really like the feature!
So this is where the magic happens huh? Very nice, good to know everyone is so down to earth and has alot of nice and simple stuff.
Zomg Davd Jaffe has a 360, GOW 3 for 360 CONFIRMED!!! j/k
Crecentes desk is close to what mine looks like before my wife made me clean up my organized mess.
Awesome
Wow, that was freaking awesome to look through. Can't believe how many 15 and 17 inch monitors there looked to be in there.
Also can no longer like Shoe ever again, lousy Wolverine fan.
I find it hilarious that Crecente has a bobblehead of himself on his shelf. Impressive scope on this! The thumbs are killing my browser, but nonetheless impressive.
This was a neat feature, and really cool on the part of these people to let you peak in on what is for some people a very private space. Can't look too much now, but I am totally going to re-visit this post later.