Final Fantasy Creator to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at GDCAs

Honors to the best games of 2014 won’t be the only thing handed out at the 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards on Wednesday, March 4 in San Francisco, with Final Fantasy Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi set to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the world of gaming.

Calling the series ‘Final Fantasy’ as a reference to his plans to leave game development if the title failed to be successful, Sakaguchi’s time at Square also saw him work on Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts, and more. In 2004, he founded Mistwalker, which brought us Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, and Terra Battle.

Since release in 1987, the Final Fantasy series has sold more than 110 million units and received seven Guinness World Records.

Meggan Scavio, General Manager of all GDC events, talked about Sakaguchi:

Over his illustrious and thriving career, Sakaguchi-san has established some of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time, and helped cement the RPG genre in Japan and around the world. But the gaming world owes an even greater debt to Sakaguchi-san and team for making a compelling game narrative as important to game development as its graphics and sound.

Final Fantasy helped pave the way for game stories that dealt with death, regret and character development in a mature and significant way, and we’re proud to honor Sakaguchi-san as a true leader in the space, and an inspired game developer.

The Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which includes industry vets from Valve, Arkane, Microsoft, and more, choose the Lifetime Achievement recipients.

In other GDCAs news, Tim Schafer (Double Fine) is hosting the ceremony, as he previously did in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013. Meanwhile, the Independent Games Festival Awards will welcome back Nathan Vella (Capybara Games) as host.

If you can’t attend GDC, the awards shows will be streamed live on Twitch.

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