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Dean Takahashi

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Dean Takahashi
Takahashi at Web Summit in 2023
BornOctober 28, 1964 Edit this on Wikidata
Sacramento Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationJournalist Edit this on Wikidata

Dean Takahashi (born October 28, 1964) is an American business journalist and author specialized in the tech and video game industries. He is best known as the lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat since 2008.

Career

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Takahashi began his journalism career in the late 1980s at the Orange County Register, later working for the Los Angeles Times (Orange County edition) and the Dallas Times Herald. From 1994 to 1996, he was a reporter in the semiconductor industry at the San Jose Mercury News. Between 1996 and 2000, he worked for the San Francisco division of The Wall Street Journal. From 2000 to 2003, he was a senior writer at Red Herring.[1] Between 2002 and 2006, Takahashi wrote two critically acclaimed[2][3] books on the design of the Xbox and Xbox 360. The first book, Opening the Xbox, was translated into Japanese and French;[4][5] the second book, The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, was translated into Italian.[6] From 2003 to 2008, he worked as a columnist and journalist covering technology and the video game industry for the San Jose Mercury News. In 2008, Takahashi joined the editorial team at VentureBeat, becoming the first editor of the GamesBeat section dedicated to video games.[7] He notably published an investigation[8] into the technical issues of the Xbox 360. In 2022, Takahashi reported that "a number of current and former employees" of Moon Studios considered the studio "an oppressive place to work". These allegations were denied by the studio's founders.[9][10]

Controversies

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In 2007, Takahashi published a critical review of the video game Mass Effect, sarcastically renaming it "Mass Defect". He later clarified that his negative experience was due to not knowing it was possible to evolve the character.[11][12][13][14] In 2011, Takahashi faced criticism for stating, in essence, that the game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was a clone of Gears of War.[15][16][17][18]

From 2017 onwards, Takahashi became the center of controversies regarding the perceived poor performance of some video game journalists, after he posted videos where he struggled with games like Cuphead and Doom Eternal. Some observers regarded the criticism against him and other "bad" players as a form of elitism.[19][20][21][22]

In 2020, following an investigation by three French media outlets revealing a "toxic corporate culture" within game development studio Quantic Dream, Takahashi published a counter-investigation.[23] It was called an "insult to journalism" by Jason Schreier.[24]

Personal life

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Takahashi was born on October 28, 1964, to Japanese American parents Thomas and Hiroko.[25][26] He had an older brother, Tracy, who was killed by mistake in a shoot-out in 1993.[26][27][28][29] Takahashi lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family. He is married and has three daughters.[30][31][32]

Bibliography

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  • Dean Takahashi (April 23, 2002). Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution. Prima Games. ISBN 0-7615-3708-2. OL 8018112M. Wikidata Q123906684. Archived from the original on June 4, 2002.
  • Dean Takahashi (May 17, 2006). The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft's Next-Generation Video Game Console. SpiderWorks. ISBN 978-0-977-78421-9. OL 8591774M. Wikidata Q123906567. Archived from the original on July 7, 2006.

References

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  1. ^ "Person: Dean Takahashi". Crunchbase. Wikidata Q123999208. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
  2. ^ "SpiderWorks: The Xbox 360 Uncloaked: The Real Story Behind Microsoft's Next-Generation Video Game Console". Archived from the original on July 7, 2006.
  3. ^ Dean Takahashi. "Opening the Xbox". Prima Publishing. Archived from the original on June 4, 2002.
  4. ^ Dale Weir (September 17, 2002). "Interview with Dean Takahashi". Gamecritics.com. Wikidata Q123907487. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  5. ^ Corentin Lamy; William Audureau (September 4, 2017). "L'étrange humiliation publique d'un journaliste américain spécialisé dans le jeu vidéo: Dean Takahashi, du site américain « VentureBeat », s'est filmé en train de rater une partie de jeu vidéo, déclenchant une série de critiques, souvent politiques". Le Monde (in French). ISSN 0395-2037. Wikidata Q123907459. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  6. ^ Dean Takahashi (July 7, 2009). "Editoriale di Dean Takahashi - Due modelli a confronto". Multiplayer.it (in Italian). Wikidata Q123992221. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  7. ^ Jemima Kiss (February 8, 2008). "Dean Takahashi leaves the Merc". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Wikidata Q123907936. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  8. ^ Dean Takahashi (September 5, 2008). "Xbox 360 defects: an inside history of Microsoft's video game console woes". GamesBeat. Wikidata Q123894032. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  9. ^ Dean Takahashi (March 18, 2022). "Despite its beautiful Ori games, Moon Studios is called an 'oppressive' place to work". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123915147. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  10. ^ Kat Bailey (March 18, 2022). "Ori Developer's Culture Reportedly 'Oppressive,' No Longer Working With Xbox: Lengthy new report delves into Moon Studio's reported culture issues". IGN. Wikidata Q123915052. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  11. ^ Dean Takahashi (December 28, 2007). "Mass Defect: Why Mass Effect falls short of its hype". The Mercury News. The Mercury News. ISSN 0747-2099. Wikidata Q123891536. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  12. ^ Dean Takahashi (January 1, 2008). "A massive mea culpa and apology for a bad Mass Effect review". The Mercury News. The Mercury News. ISSN 0747-2099. Wikidata Q123892243. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  13. ^ Dean Takahashi; Aaron Linde (January 3, 2008). "Journalist issues apology for bad Mass Effect review". Ars Technica. Wikidata Q123892830. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  14. ^ Dustin Burg (January 2, 2008). "Takahashi apologizes for his Mass Effect bashing". Engadget. Wikidata Q123875637. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  15. ^ Dean Takahashi (May 25, 2011). "How many ways can THQ's Space Marine game rip off Gears of War?". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123907761. Archived from the original on May 28, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  16. ^ David Hollingworth (May 26, 2011). "How many ways can a games journalist get it wrong?". Atomic. ISSN 1444-8998. Wikidata Q123908251. Archived from the original on August 17, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  17. ^ Gus Mastrapa (May 27, 2011). "Gamers love to be right and it makes us boring". Joystick Division. Wikidata Q123908099. Archived from the original on May 28, 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  18. ^ Jim Rossignol (May 29, 2011). "The Sunday Papers (#172)". Rock Paper Shotgun. Wikidata Q123908169. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  19. ^ Dean Takahashi (August 24, 2017). "Cuphead hands-on: My 26 minutes of shame with an old-time cartoon game". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123926249. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  20. ^ David B. Nieborg, Maxwell Foxman (September 26, 2023). Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (PDF). MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-54628-7. OL 46122777M. Wikidata Q123992151.
  21. ^ Fcp (February 7, 2020). "Dean Takahashi reposte sa vidéo de gameplay de Doom Eternal". NoFrag (in French). Wikidata Q123991457. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  22. ^ William Audureau (September 5, 2017). "Y a-t-il une culture élitiste dans le jeu vidéo ?". Le Monde (in French). ISSN 0395-2037. Wikidata Q123998466. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
  23. ^ Dean Takahashi (February 27, 2020). "How Quantic Dream defended itself against allegations of a 'toxic culture'". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123906547. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  24. ^ Schreier, Jason [@jasonschreier] (February 28, 2020). "I can't stop thinking about this. Everything about this article is an insult to journalism" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 19, 2024. Retrieved March 19, 2024 – via Twitter.
  25. ^ Takahashi, Dean [@deantak] (October 28, 2011). "happy birthday to me" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 19, 2024. Retrieved March 19, 2024 – via Twitter.
  26. ^ a b Gordon Dillow (November 18, 1993). "A Gentle Man's Life Ends in Gunfire at the Door". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Wikidata Q123874536. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  27. ^ Kurt Streeter (November 20, 2011). "Amid ill and dying inmates, a search for redemption: Tending to the men in a prison hospice helped John Paul Madrona do penance for a terrible deed in his youth. But perhaps the work was not enough". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Wikidata Q123872612. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  28. ^ Kurt Streeter (November 21, 2011). "In prison hospice, at a loss for the right words: As his 'little brother' Freddy Garcia weakens in his battle against cancer, hospice worker John Paul Madrona struggles to craft an apology to the family of the chemist he'd killed in 1993. 'Sometimes, honestly, it feels hopeless.'". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Wikidata Q123874092. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  29. ^ Dean Takahashi (December 25, 2017). "A life in game journalism". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123907678. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  30. ^ "Dean Takahashi - Lead Writer, GamesBeat". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123889049. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  31. ^ "Gamer Spotlight: Dean Takahashi". Mega Dads. September 14, 2017. Wikidata Q123886291. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
  32. ^ Dean Takahashi (May 12, 2015). "Thank you for making the inaugural GamesBeat Summit a success". VentureBeat. Wikidata Q123906645. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
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