Michael Booth is an American video game designer and executive and the current

chief creative officer The title Chief Creative Officer (CCO) typically describes the highest-ranking position of a creative team within a media company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, ...

of Bad Robot Games. He was also creator and lead designer of ''

Left 4 Dead ''Left 4 Dead'' is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Valve South and published by Valve. It was originally released for Windows and Xbox 360 in November 2008 and for Mac OS X in October 2010, and is the first title in the '' Left 4 ...

'' and founder of

Turtle Rock Studios Turtle Rock Studios (known as Valve South between 2008 and 2010) is an American video game developer founded in March 2002 by Mike Booth. It was acquired by Valve in 2008, but was re-founded in 2010 as a subsidiary of Slamfire Inc. by Phil Rob ...

, later acquired by

Valve Corporation Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution pl ...

Early career and ''Nox''

Throughout his career, Booth has generally focused on creating cooperative online multiplayer games, a genre for which he continues to advocate as recently as 2022. One of Booth's earliest projects was ''

Nox In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution. These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tro ...

'', which he created in his apartment. He brought a demo to the

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...

, and ultimately, ''Nox'' was published in 2000 through the

Westwood Studios Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westw ...

division of

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

, with Booth in the roles of project lead and lead designer. His career at Electronic Arts continued with Booth serving creative roles for 2000's '' Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge'' and 2003's '' Command & Conquer: Generals''.

Turtle Rock Studios

In 2002, Booth founded Turtle Rock Studios, where he served as CEO and game director. In 2003, Booth programmed an official bot that enabled offline multiplayer play in ''

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...

''. He was project lead and lead designer for '' Counter-Strike: Condition Zero'', released in 2004. In 2004 he began creating cooperative online game ''Left 4 Dead'', for which he was also lead designer. Booth created the AI Director in ''Left 4 Dead'' that dynamically adjusted a player's experience of the game during each playthrough. Booth also was part of the creative teams for other ''

'' games and ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...

''. After Valve acquired Turtle Rock Studios in 2008, Booth stayed on with the company until 2012.

Blizzard Entertainment, Facebook, and Resolution Games

Booth departed Valve and joined

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

as game director on an unannounced project. From December 2015 until December 2019, he was director of social

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

(VR) at

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, working with CEO

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling sharehold ...

and chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer. In April 2017, Booth led the beta rollout of Facebook Spaces, a social VR product created for

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets, virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality indust ...

. Prior to the launch, Booth appeared in live VR demonstrations of the product in April and October 2016. Booth joined the board of directors of Resolution Games in March 2020. He worked with Resolution on '' Demeo'', a 2021

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

originally created for VR.

Bad Robot Games

Booth joined Bad Robot Games in December 2020, managing the company's newly created in-house development studio. He reports to Anna Sweet, CEO of Bad Robot Games. By February 2022, he had taken on the role of chief creative officer.

Awards and recognition

* Booth's game ''Left 4 Dead'' received eight nominations at the

12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards The ''12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards'' was the 12th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2008. The awards were arranged by the Academy of ...

, winning Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play and Computer Game of the Year. * Booth, along with ''Left 4 Dead'' creatives

Gabe Newell Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), also known by his nickname Gaben, is an American video game developer and businessman. He is the president and co-founder of the video game company Valve Corporation. Newell was born in Colorado and ...

and

Chet Faliszek Chet Faliszek (; born 1965) is an American video game writer who has worked for companies like Valve and Bossa Studios, having been involved in the story writing for series such as ''Half-Life'', '' Portal'', and ''Left 4 Dead''. Career Falisz ...

, won the British Academy Games Award for Multiplayer in 2009. * ''Demeo'', which Booth creative directed, was nominated for the D.I.C.E. Award for Immersive Reality Game of the Year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Mi 21st-century American businesspeople Living people American video game businesspeople American video game designers Valve Corporation people Year of birth missing (living people)