NVIDIA CEO says the original Doom is the most influential PC game of all time

Recently, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang sat down with Lex Friedman on his podcast for an extensive discussion on all things NVIDIA, AI, and even gaming. During the candid discussion, he was asked for his thoughts on the greatest or most influential game ever made, and Jensen Huang quickly responded with id Software's iconic Doom from 1993.

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"Doom. I would say Doom, from the intersection of the cultural implication, as well as the industry turning a PC into a gaming device," Jensen Huang responded. "That was a very important moment. Now, of course, flight simulation companies were before it, but they didn't have the popularity that Doom did to have made the industry turn the PC from an office automation tool into a personal computer for families and gamers and things like that."

Singling out Doom as one of the most influential PC games ever made is not a controversial take, as id Software's iconic release helped define the first-person shooter genre and shape the next decade of games across PC and consoles. His note that it helps transform the PC from an office or work-related device into something primarily for gaming also makes sense, as Doom helped spur the rise of dedicated graphics cards and other gaming-focused hardware, making PC gaming mainstream.

Naturally, with GeForce being all about real-time 3D graphics rendering in its early days, Jensen Huang also gives a shout-out to one of his favorite gaming franchises, citing the original Virtua Fighter from Sega as the most impactful game "from an actual game technology perspective." Adding that NVIDIA was "great friends" with both id Software and Sega during the 1990s.