"You may well have read the purported Trip Hawkins email currently circulating the industry. Hawkins was the visionary who founded EA and published ingenious titles like M.U.L.E and Archon in the early eighties, who virtually created the concept of the endorsed sports title with One-On-One: Doctor J vs Larry Bird. Yet here he apparently was in 2001, defending a derivative, instantly forgettable piece of shovel ware. Now he, like fallen Doom idol John Romero, is ploughing his trade in the mobile games sector. Big fish in a small pond once again.

The games industry is getting on a bit now, and so are many of its key 'superstars'. You may not think it, given the proliferation of sequels and movie tie-ins that clog up the charts like that sickly white glue in the veins of heavy smokers, but this is a creative business. No matter how many people are involved in the process, there must be a spark of inspiration somewhere at its core. So what happens when the spark falters, or goes out?"
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