Lewis Ward is a Research Director whose coverage area includes the global video game and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) marketplaces. In terms of gaming, he covers home video game console hardware, software and services market, the digital PC gaming landscape and aspects of the associated hardware and peripherals market, and mobile and handheld video game software and hardware. Regarding AR/VR, he covers off-the-shelf and custom software and services in depth, and contributes to IDC's hardware coverage (i.e., head-mounted display shipments). A long-time enthusiast who developed a text-based game in BASIC on the Apple II in middle school, and who ruled the roost at Joust in the mid-80s, Mr. Ward brings three decades of consumer entertainment-oriented experiences and business acumen to bear in his current role.

BACKGROUND

Lewis joined IDC in 2004 as a senior research analyst, covering mobile communications and the burgeoning smartphone apps market from 2004-2009. He took over the gaming practice in mid-2009 and added AR/VR to his coverage area in late 2014. He's been promoted twice since joining IDC and has managed fellow analysts, and worked with many more on a variety of custom projects and joint reports, over the years.

Before joining IDC, Mr. Ward was an analyst at Collaborative Strategies, a San Francisco-based management services firm focused on enhancing business-to-business digital collaboration efforts from 1998 to 2004. Prior to that, he freelanced for a variety of Bay Area online and print publications, and was a frequent Bay Guardian live music scene contributor. Lewis enjoys rec basketball and spent a year in Spain in college where he enjoyed muchos tapas, learned passable Spanish, and how to hold court on the brilliance of Gaudí and Picasso.

EDUCATION/INDUSTRY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• BA in Letters and Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994
• Served on the board of GamePro Media from 2010-2011
• Serves on the board of the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR; since 2014)

Follow Lewis on Twitter @lewisaward and check out some of his press coverage on his G+ blog: plus.google.com/u/0/+LewisWard.