10 Video Games That Made Their Creators Leave The Industry
3. Patton Strikes Back
You might not know the name Chris Crawford, but he was an extremely influential game designer and writer throughout the 1980s, and made an exit from the industry in 1992 which remains nothing short of legendary.
Crawford's strategy games such as Eastern Front (1941) and Balance of Power were known for their unconventional and "inaccessible" nature, focused on social and philosophical concepts which weren't common in gaming at the time.
But following the release of Crawford's divisive 1991 game Patton Strikes Back: The Battle of the Bulge, he grew disillusioned with the industry, and during a famous speech at the 1992 Game Developers Conference, dramatically announced his exit from the 'biz.
Crawford's iconic "Dragon Speech," in which he used dragons as a metaphor for video games and likened himself to Don Quixote, saw him leave video games in order to explore more radical, emergent interactive storytelling forms.
However in 2018, some 26 years later, Crawford also announced his abandonment of interactive storytelling, feeling that civilisation was still centuries away from embracing the medium's broader concepts.
As much of a "character" as Crawford might be, you can't fault the guy for sticking to his guns and keeping his nose out of traditional games development ever since.