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Having founded two billion-dollar games companies (Games Workshop and Eidos), as well as bringing Dungeons and Dragons to the UK and writing many best-selling Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, it’s fair to say that Sir Ian Livingstone is a titan of the gaming industry.
However, he’s not finished levelling up yet; Sir Ian splits his time between heading up Hiro Capital, a venture capital fund investing in the video games and technology sector, the development of his own school, and continued work as an author. Did we mention Sir Ian received a Knighthood in 2022? It’s a title that seems especially fitting considering Sir Ian has spent much of his life creating fantasy worlds filled with knights, dragons and wizards.
After Sir Ian battled through swathes of fans looking for a signed copy of his new book, Dice Men, chronicling the origin story of Games Workshop, he put down his sword and shield for a chat with us at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum Together We Can Take on the World conference. “Games have always been my hobby, I’m a big games player even today,” he added. “I was lucky enough to turn my hobby of playing games into a lifelong business of making them. But, the way the industry has changed has been phenomenal - back in the 70s we were just making it up as we went along!”
Sir Ian’s passion for tabletop gaming led him to found Games Workshop in early 1975 with his two flatmates John Peake and Steve Jackson. At the beginning they were simply selling their own creations and independent games from the flat, but soon word got out across the pond and the trio ended up with an early copy of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). D&D was just another independent game that dropped through their door at the time, but Sir Ian quickly realised its potential and struck a deal to be the game’s exclusive distributor throughout Europe.
The popularity of D&D helped Games Workshop grow exponentially from a bedroom mail order company to
a hugely successful gaming manufacturer and retail chain, with the first physical shop opening in Hammersmith in 1978. Games Workshop expanded, with the introduction of its own tabletop game, Warhammer, and White Dwarf magazine covering all the goings on in the gaming world. It was evolving into a retail giant with a dedicated following of customers unrivalled in the sector.
“As Games Workshop grew, I began writing interactive fantasy gamebooks called Fighting Fantasy,” Sir Ian explained. “One of the first in the book series, Deathtrap Dungeon, was number one on the bestseller list in 1984. It was then that my adventure into the video game world began, after I was approached by the founders of Domark, a start-up video games company, who wanted me to write their launch game, Eureka.
“After that first dip into the video game world I didn’t look back. I sold out of Games Workshop in 1991 and joined Domark as Vice Chairman. “We went on to form a major part of a new video games publisher Eidos which floated in 1995. We launched Tomb Raider in 1996 which was a spectacular success. We had 100,000 units in the budget and ended up selling nearly 7 million copies over time.”
After leaving Eidos in 2013, Sir Ian went on to become an investor in the gaming industry, and in classic fantasy style, discovered more than his fair share of unicorn businesses. “I realised I was getting too old to run a games company at this point, so I turned my focus to investment,” Sir Ian said. “Initially I invested in a lot of indie studios and I was associated with two unicorns; Playdemic with Golf Clash and Mediatonic with Fall Guys. That led to me establishing a venture capital fund called HIRO Capital. We raised £105m which has been fully deployed, invested in 22 video games and technology companies.
I don’t claim to know everything that’s going to be a success, but I feel as experienced as anybody in recognising potential success stories in the video games industry. “It's amazing the way the games industry has now become a $200 billion a year global industry with three billion people playing, and it’s always evolving. Every time there’s a new platform it’s additive to the market size, rather than substitutional like in music."
With so many hugely successful titles and studios under his investment umbrella, there’s no question that Sir Ian knows what it takes to make it in this industry. His strategy overall is actually pretty simple, because one factor prevails above all else when it comes to his decision to invest. “There are several things I always look at, but the fundamental thing, is the game fun?” Sir Ian explained. “When people ask me what are the three most important things about a game, my answer is gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. “Technology and graphics are important, they’re vital, but they play a supporting role. It’s all about the enjoyment from the game itself. “Then of course, what you have to look at is the team. You need a great creative director on the same level as the managing director, in order to enable each other to be successful by doing what they’re good at. That's how great teams work, by the senior leadership team being both creative and business driven. “There are so many other factors that need to be considered as well including intellectual property, proprietary technology, data, business models, marketing and art. The business has to be adaptable. The whole gaming industry business model has changed from premium priced products in a physical box sold at retail, to a digital service, free at the point of delivery, accessing global markets. There needs to be an understanding of that.
Despite current economic headwinds, the future growth of the industry is assured, and there’s an incredible opportunity there for anyone who wants to invest in the games space at the moment.” Sir Ian has always been a huge advocate for education reform, with a particular focus on incorporating gaming and creative learning methods into the national curriculum. In 2010 he was tasked by the government to create a report reviewing the UK video game industry in relation to education, resulting in the ‘NextGen’ report being published in 2011 recommending changes in ICT education policy, and the later introduction of the computing curriculum in schools.
A decade later, in 2021, Sir Ian’s passion for education reform manifested itself in him opening his own school - The Livingstone Academy in Bournemouth. “The Livingstone Academy came about following the publication of NextGen with a group of us teaming up to convince the government to put computer science on the national curriculum. “The idea was all about digital creativity, to move kids from the passenger seat of consumption of technology to the driver’s seat of being able to create their own technology. “I’m a great believer in games-based learning and learning by doing.
It’s the application of knowledge that I think is so key for engagement. Kids are naturally curious. But it’s often the case that kids love learning but hate school. “Traditionally, the way that subjects were delivered was a broadcast model; where the teacher would speak and you would copy it down and remember it, then regurgitate it as and when in an examination. I don’t think that speaks to Generation Z, because everything they do is interactive and collaborative. They enjoy learning by doing. “The students at the Livingstone Academy are still served the national curriculum, but in a way that’s more contextual and collaborative, more cross-curricula and more project-based. “Put it this way, any job that involves repetition is going to be taken over by robots and artificial intelligence at some point, so there’s no point in training children like robots as
they won’t be able to compete with the real thing! That’s why we’ve got to encourage children
to think critically and creatively because that’s what will separate them from the robots.
“An authentic education for the digital world is key, bringing the arts and sciences together to encourage innovation. It is essential that school is a place where creativity flourishes. Arts and sciences should no longer be a question of either or. STEM subjects are essential, but we must never underestimate the contribution that art, music, drama and design makes in promoting diverse thinking, self-expression and self-determination - the raw materials of the Creative Industries. Learning-by-doing is our mantra, and it’s my ambition to make the Livingstone Academy a flagship school for digital creativity.”
If you want to find out more about Sir Ian Livingstone’s early journey through the gaming industry, pick up a copy of his new book ‘Dice Men’, the origin story of Games Workshop.
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