Games Workshop Livingstone co-founded
Games Workshop in early 1975 with flatmates
John Peake and
Steve Jackson. They began publishing the monthly newsletter
Owl and Weasel, and distributed copies of the first issue to
fanzine Albion subscribers;
Brian Blume received one of these copies, and sent them a copy of the new game
Dungeons & Dragons in return. Livingstone and Jackson found this game to be more imaginative than games produced in the UK at the time, and so worked out an arrangement with Blume for an exclusive deal to sell
D&D in Europe. Livingstone and Jackson organised a convention for their first time in late 1975, which became known as the first
Games Day. In June of that year, partially to advertise the opening, Livingstone and Jackson launched the gaming magazine
White Dwarf, with Livingstone as the editor. Livingstone chose the title, which had meaning relevant to both the fantasy and science fiction genres: a
white dwarf could be a reference to both a
stellar phenomenon and to a
fantasy character. but following an instruction from publishers
Penguin to write more books "as quickly as possible" the pair wrote subsequent books separately. The series had sold over 18 million copies as of 2017, with Livingstone's
Deathtrap Dungeon selling over 350,000 copies in its first year alone. Livingstone wrote another twelve
Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, including
The Forest of Doom,
City of Thieves and
Caverns of the Snow Witch before marking the 30th anniversary of
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with a new gamebook,
Blood of the Zombies, in 2012, and with
The Port of Peril in 2017 for the 35th anniversary. In 1995, Domark was acquired by the video technology company Eidos, In 2005 Eidos was taken over by
SCi and Livingstone was the only former board member to be retained, taking on the role of product acquisition director. Livingstone secured many of the company's major franchises, including
Tomb Raider and
Hitman. In 2014 Livingstone appeared in the documentary feature film
From Bedrooms to Billions (2014) a film that tells the story of the British Video Games Industry from 1979 to present. In 2021 Freeway Fighters received an adaptation on Viber and messenger, created by a Talk-a-Bot chatbot company over Viber and messenger. Livingstone was the non-executive chairman of
Sumo Group from 2015 to 2022. He is a general partner at Hiro Capital, which invested in
Skybound Entertainment in 2022.
Educational In 2010 Livingstone was asked to act as the Skills Champion by government minister
Ed Vaizey, tasked with producing a report reviewing the UK video games industry. The 'NextGen' report, co-authored with Alex Hope of visual effects firm
Double Negative, was released in 2011; Livingstone described it as a "complete bottom up review of the whole education system relating to games." A school named
Livingstone Academy was planned for 2021. ==Awards and honours==