Hosted by the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences
October 2, 2009
Vicarious Visions Inc.
Guha Bala, President
Karthik Bala, CEO and Chief Creative Officer
“Video Games: Innovating in a Maturing Industry”
Abstract
The video games industry enjoys a reputation for innovation driven growth. Yet, over the past decade, capital intensity, technical risk, and fickle consumer tastes have encouraged the creation of increasingly derivative products. With predominantly franchise and sequel driven game production and publishing worldwide, opportunity for discontinuous innovation seems increasingly rare, and opportunity for the garage inventor seemingly impossible.
Karthik and Guha Bala review a brief history of innovation in video games, and look to the recent past, current trends, and their personal experiences to offer a perspective on how companies big and small can surprise and delight consumers for years to come.
Biography
Brothers Karthik and Guha Bala founded Vicarious Visions (vvisions.com) in 1994 while both were in high school. Over the past 15 years Vicarious Visions has grown from a few friends working in their parent¹s basement to a leading developer of video game software. Today the company employs over 200 highly creative programmers, artists and designers. Vicarious Visions is housed in a forty thousand square foot state-of-the-art studio located in Albany, NY.
Over the years Vicarious Visions has garnered critical and commercial success with leading edge titles on home console and handheld platforms, having sold over 40 million games, accounting for retail sales nearing $2 billion. They are the developers of Guitar Hero for Nintendo platforms as well as acclaimed Action/RPG Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
In 2005 Vicarious Visions became part of Activision (ATVI), a leading worldwide publisher of entertainment software.
Guha Bala is the President of Vicarious Visions and oversees the day-to-day production management for the studio.He holds an honors degree in Chemistry from Harvard University. Guha served as a board member of the Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce from 2004-2007 and served on the Business Higher Educational Roundtable of the Capital District.
Karthik Bala is the CEO and Chief Creative Officer and also serves as the primary spokesperson for the studio. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Karthik is currently Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WMHT, a Public Broadcast radio and television affiliate and is also Chairman of ReQuest Multimedia, a whole house audio and media server company.
Both brothers have volunteered their time to mentor local entrepreneurs and business students. They are active participants in entertainment software professional community and have been speakers and panelists at numerous industry conferences such as Games Developers Conference and Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).