Security Confidential S10 E10 Tom Dusenberry

Manoj Tandon: Welcome to another episode of Dark Rhino Security’s Security Confidential. I’m your host, Manoj Tandon. Today, all our listeners, you guys are going to love our guest. He’s been in the gaming industry for a very long time. We’re honored to have Tom Dusenberry join us. He has spent over 30 years of his career in interactive entertainment. He’s been a very senior executive; he was the CEO of Hasbro Interactive, Games.com, and Atari, to name a few. He’s currently the CEO of Dusenberry Entertainment. He is closely associated with a lot of great games you guys have probably all heard about, like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Frogger, Star Wars, and Roller Coaster Tycoon, to name a couple. We’re lucky to have him here. So Tom, thank you for joining us.

Tom Dusenberry: Well, thank you. It’s a pleasure.

Manoj Tandon: I have to tell you, in the cybersecurity industry, if you come to our office, you’ll invariably find a couple of engineers on their console gaming away. So there’ll be a lot of people interested in the wizardry that you’ve brought to the table. I guess here to start off with, are you a gamer yourself?

Tom Dusenberry: I am. I’m a guy who absolutely loves games. I love to play games as much as to make the business of games happen.

Manoj Tandon: Was that a childhood passion or did that develop with your corporate career?

Tom Dusenberry: You know, I’ve always enjoyed games and I’ve been able to take any scenario and turn it into a game one way or another, so it was kind of a natural fit for me to go into this industry.

Manoj Tandon: So what’s your favorite game?

Tom Dusenberry: You ask that, and that’s a really complicated question for us. As long as I’ve been around, I would say my favorite game of all time—because it’s been with me and my family and my family plays it all the time—there’s actually a dice game called “Can’t Stop.” And the reason I like that is it’s a product that brings everybody together and it’s highly interactive and it’s a lot of fun for my family.

But for me, it was kind of depending on the different period of time where I had a favorite game. During the Atari era, I truly loved Frogger, and I was almost addicted to it. I was just playing non-stop. So to me, that was kind of a defining product. And then when we moved on to the Sega era, I really loved Sonic the Hedgehog, and it was a really special game as well. Then you probably remember the first Nintendo system—GoldenEye came out. That was just an amazing “shoot ’em up” type of game.

Manoj Tandon: Oh yeah, the graphics on that were really good for its time.

Tom Dusenberry: It really was, and so that was spectacular from an interacting point of view. And then during the PC era, clearly Roller Coaster Tycoon was a very special product for me personally from a play point of view, but it really did well in the marketplace. Then of course, I got into NASCAR, so I did a lot of different types of racing games. I love Forza and I love my NASCAR game. Currently, I’m playing a lot of mobile games, and my favorite game right now is a game called “Pyramid Puzzle.” It is in the FanDuel Face-Off area and it’s an addictive game that I just seem to go back to every single day. It’s got that sticky feature that brings you back over and over.

The reason I think I like the game so much is it’s very quick and it’s easy to play, but it’s got very sophisticated strategic elements to it. You can’t only anticipate the move that you’re doing right now, but you’ve got to anticipate moves three, four, five moves ahead of time to be able to make the puzzle unfold. I love games, I love playing all types of games, and as I just told you, it depends on the genre or the era.

Manoj Tandon: We’re all curious—like we’ve seen you started off with the Atari era. I don’t know how many of our audience might actually remember that, but I remember that. There was Atari, Intellivision, Magnavox, and the TRS-80 was out back then. Those games did not have the sophistication of the games of today.

You used a word just a minute ago: “simple.” Those games were very simple, but whereas I look at some of the games today, they can be very complex from a control perspective, and even learning how to play it. But they still become really popular. What key elements does a game need to have to have that stickiness, to be addicting, to want you to engage in it?

Tom Dusenberry: For me, being in the industry my entire career, it really always comes down to one thing: it’s all about the fun. Being able to develop fun is a really, really hard thing to do. It’s almost like an art form. Depending on what platform you’re on and what your capabilities are, if you can deliver a fun game, it can be a great experience. Remember back to when the phones first came out and you had Nokia and they were able to bring out Snake? I thought that was as basic of a game as you could possibly get, but it was fun. So it was all about the fun. To me, what you do from a game point of view is that you provide a fun element from a design point of view and then you use whatever the technology is at the time to maximize what that experience is.

Manoj Tandon: Does simplicity have a play in this? I guess I’m asking a selfish question because I’ve tried to play games with my sons and they’re clicking away like crazy, and I can barely even get off the launch pad. How does this work? Whereas Pac-Man was easy; it was one joystick and you could just move around.

Tom Dusenberry: I think that if you were patient with your son and tried to play the game, I think you would find the same elements. The game industry is really a step-and-repeat. What they do is they teach you a new type of game element that you need to be able to learn, and they show it to you in many different scenarios until you really get it good, and then they add on to that as well.

So if your child is really good at something, they come in and they’re all of a sudden going to level seven right off the bat, and it’s kind of overwhelming from your point of view. But if you went through the process they went through, you would find that it was broken down into pretty simple steps. I would say the other thing that has just been amazing in the game industry is that it is now as popular to watch somebody playing a game as it is to play the game yourself. That’s really through Twitch.

What has happened is that you have an opportunity with a community to go in and watch the best of the best play a game in that highly immersive, story-driven experience. A lot of people would prefer seeing the best players rather than trying to fumble through it themselves. Even for me, when Fortnite came out, my wife and I would go to Twitch and watch tournaments because it’s so exciting. So yes, simplicity is important, but games have become very sophisticated because of immersive storytelling and experiences.

Manoj Tandon: Yeah, and you’re absolutely right. I’ve seen both my sons get on Twitch or even YouTube to watch gaming sessions. It’s strange for me because we didn’t have that growing up. I’m like, “Why watch someone play a game?” But clearly there’s something very enticing about it.

Tom Dusenberry: Yeah, and if you look at the game industry today, if you combine TV, movies, books, music, and toys—they’re not as big as the gaming industry. It’s about a $200 billion industry. The average male gamer is 37 years old, and the average female gamer is 44. It transcends generations. There are games for everyone. Even AARP recently announced that their biggest activity is playing games. And the number one movie right now is the Mario Brothers movie.

Manoj Tandon: There’s a concept called Blue Ocean Strategy—where innovation creates entirely new markets. Looking back at Atari, how did you create a market where consoles were expensive and games cost $30–$35?

Tom Dusenberry: Atari positioned itself as a consumer electronics company, not a toy company. That allowed higher price points. They also allowed anyone to develop software without restrictions. That drove growth—but also caused collapse because of poor quality control. We went from $0 to $150 million in 18 months, and back to zero in under a year.

Manoj Tandon: So lack of quality control flooded the market?

Tom Dusenberry: Exactly. Then Nintendo came in with strict controls—approval processes, QA, manufacturing control—and that stabilized the industry.

Manoj Tandon: That’s a fascinating case study. So after working at companies like Atari and Parker Brothers, why start your own firm?

Tom Dusenberry: I had a successful exit from Hasbro. My kids were young, and I wanted to focus on family and mobile entertainment—which others weren’t focused on yet. I built multiple companies, worked with NASCAR, and now focus on creative design and storytelling.

Manoj Tandon: Walk us through the game creation process.

Tom Dusenberry: It starts with vision and design. I’m working on a trivia game now—the design doc alone is 19 pages. Then it goes to development: coders, artists, animators, designers. Unlike movies, games don’t end. After launch, you enter LiveOps—using analytics and feedback to evolve the game continuously.

Manoj Tandon: How important is community?

Tom Dusenberry: Critical. You need a fun game and an audience. Once launched, the audience owns the game through feedback and engagement.

Manoj Tandon: Communities are massive.

Tom Dusenberry: Absolutely. League of Legends has 125 million players. Some would rather attend esports events than the Super Bowl.

Manoj Tandon: How do franchises impact innovation?

Tom Dusenberry: It’s a double-edged sword. Big franchises dominate, making it harder for new games to break through.

Manoj Tandon: What about AI?

Tom Dusenberry: Huge impact—especially for content creation, like trivia. AI can generate scalable content and enhance gameplay.

Manoj Tandon: There’s also criticism about violent games. Thoughts?

Tom Dusenberry: Violence is a concern, but it’s not unique to games. Most players understand the difference between games and reality.

Manoj Tandon: Final question—advice for young people?

Tom Dusenberry: Work hard. That’s the biggest differentiator. Also embrace change—it creates opportunity. And respect your team.

Manoj Tandon: Fantastic advice. Anything you’d like to plug?

Tom Dusenberry: I’m always looking for innovation. If you have ideas, reach out at dusenberryentertainment.com or Tom@tomdusenberry.com.

Manoj Tandon: Don’t be surprised if you get some outreach.

Tom Dusenberry: And remember—it’s all about the fun.

Manoj Tandon: Very well said. Thank you, Tom, for joining us. It’s been a pleasure.

Tom Dusenberry: Thank you so much.