Luc Barthelet (born 1962) is a French tech executive, known for his role in the development of games in the

Sims Sims, sims or SIMS may refer to: Games * ''The Sims'', a life simulation video game series ** ''The Sims'' (video game), the first installment, released in 2000 ** ''The Sims 2'', the second installment, released in 2004 ** ''The Sims 3'', the ...

and

Simcity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, '' SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by several sequels and many other spin-off ''S ...

series as the general manager of Maxis after their acquisition by EA. He was formerly the CTO and President of Technology at

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 ...

. He joined

Unity Technologies Unity Software Inc. (doing business as Unity Technologies) is an American video game software development company based in San Francisco. It was founded in Denmark in 2004 as Over the Edge Entertainment and changed its name in 2007. Unity Techn ...

in December 2018. Between 1988 and May 2008 he worked for

. As Group Studio Head, Electronic Arts, he was instrumental in the development of persistent state worlds, including the

alternate reality game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by int ...

'' Majestic'', and the MMOs ''

Motor City Online ''Motor City Online'' was a racing massively multiplayer online video game released by Electronic Arts on October 29, 2001. The point of the game was to buy classic cars (mostly American muscle cars) ranging from 1930s to 1970s models, tune them ...

'', '' Earth and Beyond'', ''

Ultima Online ''Ultima Online'' (''UO'') is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released on September 24, 1997 by Origin Systems. Set in the '' Ultima'' universe, it is known for its extensive player versus player combat syste ...

'' and ''

The Sims Online ''The Sims Online'' was a 2002 massively multiplayer online game (MMO) developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts (EA) for Microsoft Windows. The game was a subscription-based online multiplayer version of the 2000 Maxis game ''The Sims ...

''. From 1997-2004, Barthelet was also general manager of

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is ...

, where he led product development for titles such as ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and Video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and is one of the List of best-selling video game fran ...

'', ''

The Sims 2 ''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims''. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on ...

'', ''

SimCity 4 ''SimCity 4'' is a city-building game, city-building Construction and management simulation games, simulation Personal computer game, computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The game was released in January 2003 for Mi ...

'' and ''

SimCity 3000 ''SimCity 3000'' is a city building simulation video game released in 1999, and the third major installment in the ''SimCity'' series. It was published by Electronic Arts (EA) and developed by series creator Maxis. It was released for Microsoft ...

''. After leaving EA, he became the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of TirNua, Inc., developers of the browser-based MMO of the same name. During this time, Barthelet was also on the advisory board of

Mixamo Mixamo Inc. () is a 3D computer graphics technology company. Based in San Francisco, the company develops and sells web-based services for 3D character animation. Mixamo's technologies use machine learning methods to automate the steps of the ...

. TirNua was acquired by RockYou! in December 2010, and Barthelet left to become executive director of

Wolfram Alpha WolframAlpha ( ) is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research. It is offered as an online service that answers factual queries by computing answers from externally sourced data. History Launch preparations for WolframAlpha began on Ma ...

, a position he held until May 2014. In 2018, Barthelet joined

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

as their general manager of Cloud Services. He became SVP of Technology in 2020, and also served in roles as CTO and general manager of the Unity Engine, until leaving Unity at the end of 2024. Between 2014 and 2018, he circumnavigated on his catamaran with his wife Sarah Flannery and his children.

Notes

References

LinkedIn Public Profile

Moby Games Developer BIO

Special Message EA-Land Closing

External links

Luc Barthelet
Short biography at

All Media Guide RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the AIM market of the London St ...

Mathematica Users site created by Barthelet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barthelet, Luc 1962 births Living people French businesspeople Wolfram Research people