Steve Jackson Steps Down as CEO After 46 Years – TGN

Steve Jackson is handing over the reins. The founding father of Steve Jackson Games is stepping down as CEO after main the corporate for 46 years, returning to what he’s at all times cherished most: designing video games.

Sabrina Gonzalez, a longtime SJG staffer, is taking on as CEO. Allison Web page, beforehand Managing Editor, has been promoted to Chief Working Officer.

The information was introduced Friday, September 11, 2026, by way of press launch and a follow-up put up on the corporate’s weblog, the Each day Illuminator. SJG is inviting followers to drop by their boards and congratulate each Gonzalez and Web page on their new roles.

The Finish of an Period

Jackson based SJG in 1980 after a number of years at Metagaming, and his fingerprints are everywhere in the tabletop interest. He created GURPS (Generic Common Function Taking part in System) in 1983 — a genre-agnostic RPG now in its fourth version, which Jackson and line editor Sean Punch have frequently refined over the a long time.

Different staples from his design profession embrace the celebration favorite Munchkin, the quick-playing Zombie Cube, and the sci-fi wargame Ogre.

Jackson ran the corporate with an uncommon diploma of transparency, publishing yearly “report back to stakeholders” weblog posts. However SJG has struggled to maintain tempo with the broader business in recent times — a problem mirrored in each its public-facing id and its means to drag in new clients. Trendy gamers are inclined to gravitate towards both experimental indie titles or established giants like D&D and Pathfinder.

Jackson was at all times a designer first and a enterprise proprietor out of necessity. Handing the CEO position to Gonzalez might give the corporate room to get again to what it does greatest.

Who Is Sabrina Gonzalez?

Gonzalez joined SJG in 2013 and has been with the corporate ever since, apart from a quick 2025 detour into sport manufacturing that broadened her view of that aspect of the enterprise. She’s held roles together with Manufacturing Artist and Manufacturing Supervisor, and has sat on the corporate’s Board of Administrators since 2021.

As for her targets, she’s fascinated by each the long run and the previous. “As a basic purpose, I’d like us to proceed to develop,” she mentioned. “We weathered the pandemic and pivoted mission plans to handle frequently altering tariffs. The purpose is at all times to make nice video games that folks love. I need to proceed creating new titles for future generations of avid gamers and in addition assist (and typically replace) the classics that our followers proceed to request.”

That twin strategy is already taking form. SJG lately struck a take care of Possum Creek Video games to publish and promote its RPG catalogue, together with Wanderhome and Yazeba’s Mattress & Breakfast, bringing on Jay Dragon as lead sport designer and Ruby Lavin as artwork director. The corporate has additionally licensed indie RPGs like Luke Jordan’s Grand Guignol and Caro Acersion’s Final Practice to Bremen.

Away from the desk, Gonzalez is a fan of celebration and cube video games — dominoes is her all-time favorite and travels together with her. She’s additionally a multi-instrumentalist who performs guitar, piano, ukulele, and extra.

Certainly one of her fondest SJG recollections: one in all her first assignments was designing the whole lot for the Munchkin Tavern, from the emblem to the signage and menus. A photograph of the 2013 Tavern brand ended up on a T-shirt signed by many attendees that 12 months — a memento that reminds her of fine instances with people who find themselves not with us. “We nonetheless consider and miss you drastically, Andrew Hackard,” she mentioned.

Who Is Allison Web page?

Web page joined SJG in 2023 as Managing Editor. Earlier than that, she was Government Creative Director of Killing My Lobster, a San Francisco sketch comedy outfit, and labored as a Narrative Designer in video video games — her entry level into the business.

Like Gonzalez, Web page gravitates towards celebration video games. She describes herself as fiercely aggressive and glad to take any excuse to shout and snort. She’s been a comedy author and playwright for over a decade, spending a lot of her time writing, studying others’ work in her writing group, and hanging out with fellow writers complaining about writing — which she considers an important a part of the craft.

What’s Subsequent for SJG

Just a few issues are already in movement:

• Steve Jackson will concentrate on sport design and improvement. No particular initiatives have been introduced but.
• Dragon’s 7 Half Pact — a posh RPG about wizards governing an archipelago by means of baroque politics and a shaky steadiness of occult energy — lately raised over $1,000,000 from practically 5,800 backers. Success and retail are at present estimated for late 2027.
• Munchkin 5.5E RPG, designed in partnership with Lynnvander Studios, is predicted to hit Backerkit subsequent month.

Each Gonzalez and Web page say they’re prepared for the problem and looking out ahead to ushering in a brand new period for the corporate.