Editor’s note: Ryan Smith is a longtime gamer and freelance writer who lives in Raleigh, NC. A graduate of East Carolina University with a degree in business and marketing, he has written in the past for WRAL Tech Wire and GameArgus.com. He currently plays Xbox 360 and PC as well as Nintendo DS. For story ideas, tips and feedback, he can be reached via e-mail (ryannicksmith@gmail.com)


RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Apple Inc. co-founder and cultural icon Steve Jobs passed away on Oct 5 and people around the world are sad to see him go. After co-founding Apple Inc. with Steve Wozniak, Jobs would eventually leave the company for 12 years before returning in 1996. Under his leadership and his outside the box thinking, Apple would go on to sell not only Macintosh computers for which they had become famous, but also iPods, iPads and eventually iPhones, while also being the leader in online music purchases with iTunes.

Apple had gone from struggling to stay afloat before the coming of the iMac, to becoming a worldwide leader in consumer technology in just a few short years. Jobs became an icon, photos of him unveiling the iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro or any other Apple device could be seen everywhere.

It isn’t just consumers who looked up to Jobs for his innovation, but also company executives in all fields, especially technology and video games.

The iTunes app store and the iPhone have reinvented gaming and brought it to the masses. Thousands of free and paid games reach millions of users every day thanks to Steve Jobs and Apple, in a way we never thought possible.

No one appreciates this more than Epic Games, developers of Infinity Blade which is one of the most successful games for the App Store to date. Infinity Blade 2 is coming this fall. The development of Infinity Blade also took Epic into the world of the Mac operating system.

“Steve advised us to find what you love. He found what he loved, and he changed our entire world doing it. His passion united so many talented people to focus on innovation, on quality, on usability” President Mike Capps said in a statement that was published at USA Today. “Steve’s true legacy isn’t in the products built so far, but in his lasting vision that guides Apple in bringing us the future.”

Capps had shared the stage with Jobs in September 2010 along with Donald Mustard of Epic subsidiary Chair Entertainment when Infinity Blade was announced. That game would prove the App Store isn’t just for casual games.

Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney also looked up to Jobs.

“I really think Steve Jobs was one of the greatest people to live in our time,” he said. “A child born today onward will grow up in a world full of iPhones and iPads and will see Steve Jobs as my generation saw Winston Churchill or Albert Einstein.”

Epic’s Design Director Cliff Bleszinski tweeted “RIP Steve Jobs :(.”

The world of technology is vastly in debt to Steve Job’s leadership but so is the video game industry. Thanks to the iPhone, video games are reaching more people than ever and changing the world of games as we know it.

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