Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games, announced that he will retire after more than 30 years with the company in March 2025.
Owned by Sony, Insomniac Games is known for creating iconic game franchises like Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, and Marvel’s Spider-Man series.
Price’s departure is a happy and rare event in the gaming industry, where it is still rare to see someone spend three decades in the gaming industry and retire voluntarily. And during that time, Price’s company excelled with titles that I felt were getting better and better with titles like the Spider-Man series.
In 2019, I interviewed Price about his 25 years in the industry.
He said he started Insomniac Games (first known as Extreme Software) in 1994. Along with Al Hastings and his brother Brian, Price began working on Disruptivea sci-fi shooter that publishers have repeatedly rejected. The price had fallen to its last $1,000. They started developing Disruptor for the 3DO, but that first game console started to flop. Mark Cerny, producer at Universal/Cerny Games, therefore suggested transferring the game to the PlayStation, Sony’s very young game console.
Disruptor published by Universal. It didn’t work well, but it led to more projects. The next game was Spyro the Dragon, which was a family platformer with a wider target audience than Disruptor. Spyro became a success, and it still exists today. Since then, Insomniac has moved into bigger games and is now celebrating its 25th anniversary as a company. Its games include Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, Fuse, Sunset Overdrive, The Unspoken, Song of the Deep and, most recently, Marvel’s Spider-Man series.
When asked how the company has weathered its 25 years in the tough video game industry, Price said in our 2019 interview: “What has helped us weather the ups and downs of the industry, it’s a commitment to collaboration across the studio. Transparency, where everyone knows what’s going on. Commitment to the philosophy that great ideas come from everywhere: as a studio, from the very beginning, we have always relied on an approach in which we want everyone to own the creative process, to contribute to it and solves problems as a group. »
He added: “This is not a business where a lead designer or creative director tells everyone what to do. We’ve never operated that way, and I don’t believe it works well in a culture like ours, where so many different disciplines work together to create magic. I feel like we’ve been very consistent, culturally speaking, in an industry that tends to be inconsistent.
This culture has produced leaders beyond Price. To fulfill this role, Insomniac is moving to a new leadership model with three co-studio heads: Chad Dezern, Ryan Schneider and Jen Huang.
Price had a lot of heart, which also made him a beloved figure in the gaming industry, as he was and still is a key contributor to the industry’s DICE Summit, hosted annually by the Academy of Games. interactive arts and sciences industry. And he also had courage. Price took a stand against President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens of seven Muslim countries.
While other game developers were tweeting or emailing employees about Trump, Price took it a step further by creating a YouTube video, where he stood on camera with all of Insomniac’s employees behind him. He appealed not only to Trump but also to players to oppose the policy. And Price, whose company created many popular games like Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, used the medium gamers turn to almost every day, YouTube.
During Trump’s first days in office in 2017, game developers around the world issued statements and tweets criticizing Trump’s order. ban refugees and ban citizens from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, to enter the United States for 90 days. Trump also banned foreigners with U.S. permanent resident green cards from entering the country unchecked, and he permanently barred refugees from Syria.
“At Insomniac Games, we are united in strongly opposing President Trump’s immigration ban,” Price said in the video. “There is no doubt that these orders will harm us as a company and many of our team members. So we ask. Is this the American method? Is discrimination based on religious faith or national origin American? Absolutely not. This is a deplorable and discriminatory act that we, along with many others across the country, consider to be blatantly unconstitutional. We have been, are and always will be a nation of immigrants. If you agree with us, do something. …Join us to be a force for good and make your voice heard.
This leadership is why we awarded Price our second annual Visionary Award in 2019.
Insomniac Games also thanked everyone who contacted Insomniac to inquire about the status of its employees and the Burbank studio during the terrible fires in the Los Angeles area.
“The fires have devastated the communities around us. We continue to focus on supporting each other and communicating daily with Sony Interactive Entertainment to provide the latest information and resources to everyone involved,” the company said.
The three executives replacing Price said in a message: “Sharing the news that Ted is stepping down from Insomniac Games is always as emotional to write as it is to think about. The three of us – Chad, Jen and Ryan – have worked closely with Ted for many years. He is not only our leader, he is our long-time friend. And an excellent one at that. Ted will be missed for many reasons.
He added: “One of the great things about Ted is his ability to inspire everyone around him to grow. Ted also set the ultimate example of how to not only say the right thing, but do it. Both in our games and in the way we behave as leaders and as a studio.
They said seeing how Price had operated for decades prepared them for the challenge of slipping into Ted’s enormous, canoe-sized shoes.
“None of us can or should try to be ‘like Ted’: we must stay true to ourselves and our own leadership style. However, it’s safe to say that we often ask ourselves, “What would Ted do?” as part of our individual and collective decision-making process,” Schneider said in the post.
“I began my career at Insomniac during the PlayStation 2 era in studio marketing and communications, quickly changing roles to become Insomniac’s first Community Director and helping establish that role within the PlayStation ecosystem,” Schneider said. “I joined the Insomniac leadership team several years ago and have held several studio roles, including head of franchise strategy and studio relations. In this role, I partnered with teams within and beyond Sony Interactive on how and when we talk about our games, including creative in-game integrations. Most recently, I served as Head of Brand Strategy and Leadership, meaning I ensure, through communications, coaching and culture development, that what Insomniac says to the world about itself and our games aligns with what we believe and how we act at Insomniac. .”
