Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida has been honoured with a BAFTA Games Fellowship. The award will be presented at this years BAFTA Game Awards on March 30th.
In a statement, Yoshida said: “Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with incredibly talented teams who’ve developed some of the best games in the industry.”
“I’ve always celebrated alongside these developers as their games have received well-deserved awards – it is an amazing honour for me to receive an accolade of my own.”
Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA was full of praise for Yoshida, describing him as “a pioneer in the games world” and a “champion of independent developers”.
“Shuhei Yoshida is a pioneer in the games world and is hugely deserving of a BAFTA Fellowship.” Millichip said. “His collaborative, supportive approach continues to drive progress within the industry, using his platform to promote the voices and craft of others and champion the work of independent designers, studios and creatives.”
In a post on Twitter, Yoshida took the opportunity to further express his gratitude.
“I am really surprised by this award. From the original PlayStation to the present day, I have been fortunate enough to work with many talented and passionate game developers. thank you.”
Yoshida joined Sony back in 1993, where he headed its third party licensing programme as part of the PlayStation project. In 2008, he would go on to become the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, now known as Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SIE).
Yoshida vacated his role as president in 2019, taking on a new position as head of SIE’s independent developer initiative, which focusses on nurturing external independent developers.
First awarded in 1971 to Alfred Hitchcock, a BAFTA fellowship is the organisation’s highest honour, which recognises “an exceptional contribution to film, television or games.” Other recipients include Charlie Chaplin (1976), David Attenborough (1980), Steven Spielberg (1986), Sean Connery (1998) and Judi Dench (2001).
The first games fellowship was awarded in 2007, when The Sims and SimCity creator Will Wright received the accolade. Since then, a further 10 games fellowships have been awarded, the recipients include Nolan Bushnell (2009), Shigeru Miyamoto (2010), Peter Molyneux (2011), Gabe Newell (2013), John Carmack (2016), Tim Schafer (2018), Hideo Kojima (2020) and Siobhan Reddy (2021). Rockstar Games as a whole was also awarded a fellowship in 2014.