Joe Ybarra

Joe’s career started at Apple Computer in 1980, and has held senior positions at Electronic Arts, Mediagenic/Activision, Ybarra Productions, Creative Insights, The 3DO Company, Ensemble Studios, Ubisoft Entertainment, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment..

After meeting Trip Hawkins (who Joe wasn't aware was his co-worker at Apple), Joe joined Electronic Arts as their first producer and was later promoted to Vice President, Interactive Stories . At that time, the concept of a video game "producer" directing a game developer as a music producer directs a recording artist was new to the video game industry. Joe Ybarra's methods for game production were adopted by EA and are still used today.

While at EA, Joe produced several acclaimed games such as: M.U.L.E., Larry Bird and Michael Jordan go One on One, The Bard's Tale, Starflight, and John Madden Football .

Some of his titles, such as Bards Tale, M.U.L.E., Starflight and Wasteland have been elected to Computer Gaming World's Hall of Fame.

Julius Erving and Larry Bird Go One-on-One were in second place on Billboard's software best-seller chart throughout its two-year life span and The Shadow of Yserbius was awarded on-line game of the year in 1993 by Computer Gaming World.

Joe Ybarra has since produced over 50 computer and videogame titles such as: Seven Cities of Gold, Wasteland, Bard's Tale 2, & 3, Legacy of the Ancients, Heart of Africa, Arctic Fox, Archon, Rad Gravity (Nintendo), The Shadow of Yserbius, Fates of Twinion, Alien Legacy, Meridian 59 , Zork Zero, Ghostbusters II, F-14 Eagle Flight Simulator, Deathtrack, Cosmic Osmo, Mechwarrior, Might & Magic, High Heat Baseball, and Army Men.

Joe has produced three MMO titles, Shadow of Yserbius (1993 online game of the year, Computer Gaming World), The Matrix Online and Stargate Worlds.

Joe Ybarra has recently held the program chair position for the game design department of Collins College in Phoenix, AZ.