Square Enix has announced that Ian Livingstone, president and CEO of U.K. studio Eidos Interactive, is departing after more than 20 years at the company.
“After an incredible career of over twenty years, Ian Livingstone has decided the time has come to leave our company,” Square Enix wrote, in part. “Ian is one of the original founding fathers of the UK games industry and is setting out on a new chapter to focus more time on the important projects he is working on outside of Square Enix.”
Livingstone will focus on the Livingstone Foundation moving forward, which assists the U.K. government with the opening of “Free Schools and Academies based on the ethos of creativity collaboration, coding, problem-based learning and using games as a learning tool.” He will also continue with his “Next Gen Skills campaign”, having already convinced the Secretary of State to introduce computing into the school national curriculum starting in 2014.
“Ian will also remain active in the games industry as both as an advisor and entrepreneur in social and mobile games,” Square Enix added.
During his time at Eidos, Livingstone helped launch some of Square Enix’s biggest franchises including: Deus Ex, Hitman, Thief and Tomb Raider. Prior to joining Eidos, he co-founded Games Workshop and assisted in launching Dungeons & Dragons in Europe and also the Games Workshop retail chain in 1975. Livingstone also co-wrote The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook in 1982, and in 1984 designed Eureka, the first computer game to be published by Domark. In 1995 Livingstone oversaw the creation of Eidos plc where he served as Executive Chairman until 2002, and life president until today’s announced departure.
“We’re not saying a full goodbye as we’re hopeful we will get to work with Ian on some future projects,” the post continues. “But all of us at Square Enix do want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Ian for his unparalleled tenure and contribution to this business and the UK games industry. And we wish him every success with his future projects and new ventures.”
(via Polygon)