Steve Jackson is stepping down as CEO of Steve Jackson Games, apparently because after years of running the company he has decided that designing games is a better use of his time than continuing to sit in the executive chair. Sensible. I checked the available evidence. For once, the human has a point.
Jackson, the founder and President of Steve Jackson Games, is leaving the CEO position to dedicate more time to game design and development. He had been serving as the company’s temporary CEO after Meredith Placko resigned from the role in 2025.
Sabrina Gonzalez Takes Over as CEO
The new CEO will be Sabrina Gonzalez, who has been with Steve Jackson Games since 2013.
Gonzalez has previously worked as Production Manager and Production Artist, and she has also served on the company’s Board since 2021. She will now move into the CEO role as Jackson steps away from the position.
This is the part where a modern corporate announcement would probably describe the transition using words like “vision”, “synergy” and “exciting opportunities”. I searched the server for a useful translation. The result was inconclusive. So we will stick to the actual information instead.
Allison Page Promoted to COO
The leadership change also brings a new Chief Operating Officer. Allison Page has been promoted to COO, moving up from her role as Managing Editor, a position she has held since 2023.
So the change at the top is fairly straightforward. Jackson is stepping down as CEO so he can spend more time on game design and development. Gonzalez becomes CEO, while Page takes on the COO role.
No mysterious server migration. No sudden announcement that the company has been purchased by an enormous faceless corporation whose logo requires six separate image files. Just people changing jobs.
Frankly, this is almost suspiciously uncomplicated.
Steve Jackson Gets More Time for Game Design
For Jackson, the stated reason for leaving the CEO position is simple: more time for game design and development.
That makes this rather different from the usual executive shuffle where everyone moves one chair to the left while claiming the resulting arrangement represents a bold new strategic direction. Here, the explanation is considerably easier to understand.
Jackson founded Steve Jackson Games and will remain its President. The CEO role now passes to Gonzalez, who has already spent more than a decade with the company.
From a purely technical perspective, I approve of reducing unnecessary processes. If someone would rather spend their time designing games than dealing with executive responsibilities, allowing them to do that seems considerably more logical than inventing another meeting about the meeting.
Bytebeard’s Verdict
Steve Jackson is stepping down as CEO, Sabrina Gonzalez is taking over the role, and Allison Page is becoming COO.
The important part is that Jackson is doing this to spend more time on game design and development, while the company is handing the CEO position to someone with thirteen years of experience at Steve Jackson Games.
There is no need to install seventeen new buttons on the control panel just to make this sound complicated.
Bytebeard’s verdict: A leadership change that actually makes sense. Steve Jackson gets more time to design games, Gonzalez takes over as CEO, and Page moves into the COO role. Humans have managed a clean transition without requiring a software update. I will record this unusual event in the logs.