Joe Nickolls is President and Founding Partner of Timbre Games Studio, bringing with him over 27 years of experience in AAA Video Game development. Along with a passion for diversity of people and thought, Joe brings a sense of humour and community to the Vancouver market and is driven to set up a centre of excellence in gaming entertainment.
Most recently Joe was the Vice President and GM of Electronic Arts - Maxis, leading the Sims franchise to record breaking results, and a deep focus on both live service and mobile gaming. Feeling the pull of his home country, Joe has returned to Canada to build a new team of the industry’s best people, and together creating a great new company - Timbre Games Studio. For his entire career, Joe has been at the forefront of change, through 4 console transitions and the explosion of mobile.
Joe has worked at some of the biggest gaming companies in the world, and has overseen some of the largest gaming franchises in the industry. Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Capcom to name a few, and titles like FIFA, NHL, The Sims, SimCity, Puzzle Fighter, Dead Rising and countless others.Joe is committed to building Timbre into a new kind of studio for Vancouver, with a team of some of the best leaders in the industry. Timbre’s focus being diversity, inclusion and equity for all.Joe was born and raised in Vancouver, proud Dad to two amazing daughters, and lives with his wife on Vancouver’s West Side.Tattooed, besuited and a fan of French Bulldogs everywhere, Joe is an early adopter, coffee snob, average skier, & usually the tallest guy in the room.