5/10

6:29 PM

Today we visited Glass Egg Digital Media, a software development company that seems to dominate the gaming industry. Glass Egg does the design work for many of the popular racing games, as well as other games too. The company is 17 years old and located in district 4, where all of the production is done.

Although Glass Egg is one of the most (if not, THE most) successful software developers in the world, they have faced many exceptional challenges since conception. CEO Steve Reid discussed issues of gaining enough funding to start up and then running out of money several times in the process. After finally raising enough money, the company began to attract companies by hiring artists with skills in technology, something considered unique in the gaming industry. What eventually came about was a developing company that possessed a special knack for making 3-D images of cars. While cars are the specialty of the company, Reid and CEO Phil Tran faced the issue of diversifying the Glass Egg’s image to attract more customers. When asked for examples of other work at gaming showcases, the company had nothing to show. Eventually, this spurred the idea to start practicing designs of other 3-D objects, such as characters and weaponry and that gained Glass Egg more trust when it came to clients willing to hire them.

A major that Glass Egg faces today is location. Many design companies are in China and Japan so traveling to Vietnam seems to be an inconvenience. For where there are 300 companies in Hong Kong, there are 10 in the entire country of Vietnam. Additionally, the Japanese gaming companies specifically pose a major restriction on Glass Egg; they require everything in Japanese. Through the hiring of Japanese translators and much patience, they managed to keep the interest of the most successful gaming companies in the world.

While the persistence of the company helps define its character, CEOs of Glass Egg are also compassionate when embracing difficulty. He and CEO Phil Tran also had to take pay cuts when the United States entered the 2008 depression, while refusing to reduce the salary of newer employees. Guillaume Monier, the company COO testified to the extent of the company’s passion and even though they work in such a competitive industry, they produce with vigor.