Yu Suzuki
Arcade fans who skipped school and did extra chores for money just to have enough credits to beat Virtua Cop or OutRun can blame Yu Suzuki. He started off as a humble programmer who joined Sega before introducing the world's first ever 3D fighting game that we know as Virtua Fighter. Many of his other works went on to influence gaming as we know it.

One of the big titles he made, Shenmue for the Dreamcast, while considered as overly ambitious used Quick Time Events before high profile titles like Resident Evil 4 and God of War even picked up the twitch-based mechanic that kept players on their toes. The "Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment" genre Suzuki wanted to popularize via the U.S. million game may not have worked, but parts of it can be seen in most sandbox style games.

Richard Garriott
Lord British, as fans of the long-running role-playing game series Ultima would know, has been creating immersive worlds for almost three decades. While Japan had the oddities of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, the west grew to love the RPG genre thanks to Ultima's vast universe that spans over numerous games and spin-offs.

When you look at World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, or other MMORPGs, you gotta hand it to Garriott's Ultima Online for laying the foundation of taking adventures online with hundreds of other friends. Korea's much loved MMORPG, Lineage, was also produced by Lord British.