Ian Livingstone Leaves Square Enix

Business  and technology speaker, Ian Livingstone has departed from Square Enix after 20 years with the company.

Ian has had a successful career in the games industry and brought the Lara Croft and Tomb Raider franchise to the market. He also helped to launch other franchises such as Thief, Hitman, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain and co-wrote the Fighting Fantasy books with Steve Jackson, starting with the 17m-selling The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982.

Ian  originally oversaw the formation of the British Software company Eidos, which was taken over by Square Enix in 2009. He leaves his position as Eidos Life President but will continue to be involved in the games industry as an advisor and entrepreneur in social and mobile games.

His current roles include vice chair of trade body UKIE, chair of Playdemic, Playmob, Skillset's Video Games Council and the Next Gen Skills Committee. He is also a member of the Creative industries Council and trustee of games industry charity GamesAid.

Due to his impressive work in the games industry, Ian has received numerous acknowledgments of his including a BAFTA Special Award for his contribution to the industry, two honorary PhDs, an OBE and a CBE.

Phil Rogers, CEO of Square Enix for Europe and America stated that “Every industry has pioneers and legends, words which can be used too casually, but not in the case of Ian, who should be an inspiration to everyone making games all over the world.” He finished his statement saying “Doing all this whilst devoting a lot of personal time to supporting numerous charities where he now wants to focus even more of his efforts. We thank Ian. They say ‘Busy people make time’ and I’m hopeful that our and Ian’s paths will cross again.”