- Jason Rubin
Jason Rubin (born 1970) is an American video game director,
comic book creator , and Internet company founder. He is best known for theCrash Bandicoot series of games which were produced byNaughty Dog , the game development studio he co-founded with partner and childhood friendAndy Gavin in 1986.Career
In 1983,
Rubin metAndy Gavin in Hebrew school. Together, at the age of 15, they formedNaughty Dog in 1985. Later that year, they published their first game together - a budgetware title called Ski Crazed, and in 1989, Rubin and Gavin sold their first game toElectronic Arts :Keef the Thief .Their next epic was
Rings of Power . The game began as a PC title, but during meetings atElectronic Arts , Gavin spotted a reverse engineeredSega Genesis , pitched a slightly modified version of the title toTrip Hawkins , and the title became the duo’s first console game. Rings of Power still has a cult following today.After much persuasion from Hawkins, Rubin and Gavin took a leap of faith and starting designing
Way of the Warrior , which was heavily inspired byMortal Kombat , for the unreleased3DO console. They demoed the game atCES , and immediately received interest fromSkip Paul , former Chairman ofAtari ’s Coin-Op division and then head of the newUniversal Interactive Studios . Skip signed the pair to a three title development deal at Universal, moving them out to the Universal Studios lot and introducing them toMark Cerny , who worked with the pair on the design of their next title, aDonkey Kong Country inspired 3D platformer calledCrash Bandicoot .Crash turned out to be an enormous success, and Sony used the main character as their unofficial PlayStation mascot for several years. The game served as a quality benchmark that all other game developers aimed to match, and the series spawned three sequels by
Naughty Dog . The series continues with other development teams, having sold more than 25 million units worldwide. After their success with Crash, Rubin and Gavin began working onJak and Daxter , a game recognized for makingPlayStation 2 the foremost console for platformers.Over the years,
Naughty Dog ’s game catalogue has spanned across a wide array of different platforms. After Sony saw the company’s games slated for development, they decided to purchase Naughty Dog, which became a wholly owned subsidiary ofSony Computer Entertainment America in 2001. was developed exclusively for the PS2 and became a hit in 2001.Just days after making a controversial speech at 2004’s D.I.C.E. Summit that criticized publishers for not recognizing and promoting talent responsible for creating games, Rubin publicly announced his departure from
Naughty Dog .Jason Rubin is also a very smelly person, just voted the Universes Stinkiest Person. It was reported by several eye witnesses recently that he stopped using deoterant and is actively promoting a stinky lifestyle to get back into the limelight. The stench was reported to have floated two city blocks where people were harmfully exposed.
Current Projects
Referred to by the gaming press as an “industry visionary” and a “thoughtful,” albeit “outspoken” member of the business, Rubin began work on a new comic book entitled
Iron and the Maiden , which was published by Aspen Comics. The comic includes artwork designed by well-known artistsJoe Madureira ,Jeff Matsuda ,Francis Manapul andJoel Gomez .Shortly after, he co-founded a new Internet startup called
Flektor with his former business partner Andy Gavin and former HBO executiveJason Kay . In May 2007, the company was sold toFox Interactive Media , which is a division ofNews Corp . Fox has described the company as: “a next-generation Web site that provides users with a suite of Web-based tools to transform their photos and videos into dynamic slideshows, postcards, live interactive presentations and video mash-ups.” In October 2007,Flektor partnered with its sister company,MySpace , andMTV to provide instant audience feedback via polls for the interactive MySpace / MTV Presidential Dialogues series with presidential candidateSenator Barack Obama .Rubin has left
Fox Interactive Media to continue work onIron and the Maiden and other comics, as well as other projects rumored to involve a return to video games.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.