Q&A with Rob Bridgett: (Un)Common Threads 2026 Featured Speaker

Over the past few years, industries have changed at a lightning-fast pace. The video games industry is no exception. Just ask Rob Bridgett.

As an award-winning audio director, writer and creative leader with more than 25 years of experience in the industry, Rob knows what it means to "level up."

Relocating to Canada in 2003, he has built an international career as a senior audio director, working for leading studios including PlayStation, Square Enix, Activision Blizzard and Vivendi Universal. These days, he lives in Newfoundland, working remotely and collaboratively with a global team.

We're thrilled to have Rob deliver his talk "Levelling up: a conversation about maintaining your creative voice as your industry changes" at the 2026 (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit on November 5 at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John's.

We recently caught up with Rob to chat about his career path, the important role creativity plays and how living in Newfoundland takes inspiration to the next level. 

Rob Bridgett

Business & Arts NL: As a Senior Vice President, how much of your work life do you feel is creative and how much is managing people?

Rob Bridgett: Every day is different, each project, each team that I am involved with, even if only tangentially, has different needs and asks different questions. Each project also requires different things of the sound. My work seems to centre around collaborative conversations, and through these I feel is the gateway to how much creativity and exploration is possible vs. how much is about execution. Even with management, the way I work with people is through exploring ideas and seeing where conversations naturally go. Over time I have become allergic to the idea that creative work is something that can be separated — to me, creativity is always embedded in everything we do in making video games; each interaction I have seems to need some blend of creative, technical and collaborative elements.

It is fitting that our topic of conversation is about maintaining a voice while all around us things seem to be changing. As I was preparing for the summit, coincidentally just a couple of weeks ago I switched my job, departing PlayStation Studios where I was Senior Manager of Sound for the last five years, to take a new position as Senior Vice President of Audio at Interleave, a video game audio co-development company based here in Canada. While in one sense everything is different there, there are so many ways in which my work and conversations simply continue.

Business & Arts NL: You've been living in Newfoundland, working remotely away from perhaps what might be thought of as traditional industry hubs. Is there anything about being here that's shaped how you work or think?

Rob Bridgett: Absolutely. I believe it has had a profound effect. Practically speaking, it is in a perfect half-way timezone sweet spot between Europe and the west coast of North America, which is excellent for collaboration. The communications and broadband infrastructure that enables remote collaboration is also rock solid. On a more sustainable level, being able to leave my home studio and walk into a forest is something I’ve always dreamed could be a possible way to work, and here I am able to do that. The key thing there is that I find a place to let the mind wander, a real refresh from time at the screen. Doing something physical like walking, snow clearing or moving dead trees also gets me thinking in a different way and away from the studio chair.

I get a lot of excitement and inspiration from the weather here, especially the speed of change in the weather — even choosing what to wear to leave the house means you have to be prepared for fast changes. So there’s definitely a way of living here that is all about being ready for change, responding to changes. It keeps you on your toes.

Rob recording audio just above the Battery in St. John’s.

Business & Arts NL: What inspires you and what are some of the things you do to stoke your own creativity?

Rob Bridgett: Being anywhere I can listen, Newfoundland plays a big role here too. I was walking with my son on Deadman’s Bay Path in the dense fog and just hearing wind but with one single solitary bird — this struck me as something that wouldn’t feel "realistic" if we put that soundscape in a video game. To be that deliberately hyper-minimal in approach for a soundscape would appear as either a bold creative choice or a technical mistake, but there it is in nature. The absolute stillness that is possible here in winter is something that I’ve never experienced anywhere else. It is rare, but when there is no wind, and the snow has just fallen, it can be breathtaking. We need more moments of stillness in video games.

The northern gannets at Cape St. Mary’s are another amazing and spiritual experience that comes to mind — the place and those birds feel eternal. I’ve used recordings I made of that gannet colony in the Tomb Raider game I worked on. The ship horns from the Harbour Symphony are another unique sound I’ve recorded on a few occasions. Whether it is a sound or a feeling of a place, I know these are moods that I can try to evoke later for ideas in certain gameplay locations in the future. It is as though every time you walk around, in whatever season, you are able to expand your creative palette.

Business & Arts NL: What's something you've read, watched, listened to or played recently that's stuck with you?

Rob Bridgett: I’m quite locked into my YouTube subscriptions these days, so I’m always keeping up to date with George Vlad’s channel. He is a field recordist for movies and games and has a lot of videos of exotic birds and location ambiences. Similarly, Harmen Hoek’s "silent" hiking videos are just beautiful and evocative of the places he is in, no commentary or talking, just letting the experiences speak for themselves.

As for games, I’m going back and listening to older games at the moment, so I’m really enjoying Cocoon by designer Jeppe Carlsen, which is maybe from three years ago. Monument Valley 3, also a game in that similar puzzle genre, is one that just sounds and looks beautiful, and both of these are experiences that have no in-game dialogue, so they focus on the emotions and senses and leave space for the player to think differently.

Catch Rob Bridgett's featured talk at (Un)Common Threads 2026 on November 5 at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John's (click here to purchase tickets).