Shigeru Miyamoto to Be Awarded BAFTA Fellowship

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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Shigeru Miyamoto to Be Awarded BAFTA Fellowship



Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto will be honored by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his work creating classic games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.

It must be awards week for industry luminaries: Yesterday, we learned that John Carmack [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98517-Doom-Creator-John-Carmack-Gets-GDC-Lifetime-Achievement] would be getting a GDC lifetime achievement award, and today we learn that Nintendo's legendary Shigeru Miyamoto will be getting a Fellowship of his very own.

No, he's not going to Mordor: Miyamoto is being honored by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his creative contributions to the videogame industry. Though BAFTA is not a videogame organization like the organizers of GDC (as should be obvious from the name), Miyamoto is not the first game luminary to be honored by the organization - he will join SimWhatever creator Will Wright (2007) and Pong visionary Nolan Bushnell (2009) in a very elite club.

"The Fellowship is the highest accolade the Academy can bestow on an individual for their creative work and we are honored to have Miyamoto with us to accept his award," said film producer, actor and BAFTA chair David Parfitt. "With previous honorees including Hitchcock, Kubrick and Pinter, it is only fitting that Miyamoto be recognized alongside these other pioneers for his groundbreaking work ... He helped to develop an entire creative industry and is still a major force in its continuing success."

Though Shigeru Miyamoto is the individual being presented with the Fellowship (and easily Nintendo's most prominent designer), he says he will accept the honor not just for himself but for all of those who have supported him thus far:

"I am very grateful to be able to receive such an honorable award from the British Academy," said Miyamoto in a statement. "Our video games cannot be created by one person; since Donkey Kong until the most recent New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I have been working closely with a number of friends for three decades in order to develop fun and enjoyable games. I would like to receive this honorable award on behalf of all of these dependable colleagues."

Congratulations to our man Shigeru. While videogames might well exist today if it hadn't been for you, I don't want to know what they'd look like.

(Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27361/Shigeru_Miyamoto_To_Receive_BAFTA_Fellowship.php])

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Rainboq

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Nov 19, 2009
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John Funk said:
Congratulations to our man Shigeru. While videogames might well exist today if it hadn't been for you, I don't want to know what they'd look like.
Who knows? The games industry could be built on continually creating new IPs, no sequels, no movie tie-ins....
 

The DSM

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Apr 18, 2009
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Will Wright: You have my sword.
Nolan Bushnell: And my bow.
Shigeru Miyamoto: And my axe!

You all saw that coming.

OT:I think he deserves it he made Legend of Zelda: It fucking awesome.
 

Pendragon9

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Apr 26, 2009
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I can imagine everyone in Super Smash Brothers Brawl saluting their creator as he gets this award.
 

Heart of Darkness

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Jul 1, 2009
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Rainboq said:
John Funk said:
Congratulations to our man Shigeru. While videogames might well exist today if it hadn't been for you, I don't want to know what they'd look like.
Who knows? The games industry could be built on continually creating new IPs, no sequels, no movie tie-ins....
Because sequels are inherently a bad thing.

OT: Good for Miyamoto. Say what you will about Nintendo, but Miyamoto is a god among developers. I'm glad he's being recognized for his contributions for the industry from an outside source.

And yeah, I wouldn't want to think of a world without Miyamoto's influence, either.
 

Arkhangelsk

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He bloody deserves it. Imagine where we would be without him. Nintendo wouldn't make it. Their consoles wouldn't make it, and... Oh God, I can't even imagine how much we'd lose...
 

SnootyEnglishman

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It's good to finally see Shigeru-san get some very good recognition. My life today wouldn't be the bright and colorful awesomeness it he wasn't around
 

Ken_J

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Pendragon9 said:
I can imagine everyone in Super Smash Brothers Brawl saluting their creator as he gets this award.
I could imagine everyone in auditorium playing Brawl and saying
"This guy deserves an award. Yeah got your power John."
 

Gigaguy64

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Apr 22, 2009
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-Clap Clap Clap-
Congratulations Mr.Miyamoto!

Id hate to imagine a life without Zelda or Mario.
And trying to imagine how games would be today without influences like those.......it scares me.
 

Adzma

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Sep 20, 2009
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While he does deserve the award for Super Mario Bros. and Zelda, lets not forget that this is the man who also pushed for WiiSports, WiiMusic etc. Those have to take some points off in my book.
 

Sparrow

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Feb 22, 2009
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England? England is the country to do this first? Not, say, America?

I mean, c'mon. No Oscars, or Emmys? Or a Golden Globe? What else could we give him, besides maybe a freaking Grammy?
 

Gigaguy64

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Apr 22, 2009
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Amnestic said:
Psh. Anyone can get a BAFTA. Getting knighted and being Sir Shigeru Miyamoto?

That'd be impressive.
i wonder if he would provide his own sword if that ever happened.
 

Crabturtleking

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Jun 2, 2009
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Amnestic said:
Shigeru Miyamoto
Who?

Sparrow said:
England? England is the country to do this first? Not, say, America?
Psh. Anyone can get a BAFTA. Getting knighted and being Sir Shigeru Miyamoto?

That'd be impressive.
Funny you should say that. He was knighted into the [a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/07/shigeru-miyamoto-to-receive-french-honour/]Ordre des Arts et des Lettres[/a] about 4 years ago.
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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Rainboq said:
John Funk said:
Congratulations to our man Shigeru. While videogames might well exist today if it hadn't been for you, I don't want to know what they'd look like.
Who knows? The games industry could be built on continually creating new IPs, no sequels, no movie tie-ins....
Lol...Yeah, with all the Mario...

Seriously though, he deserves it! Good man!
 

Amnestic

High Priest of Haruhi
Aug 22, 2008
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Crabturtleking said:
Funny you should say that. He was knighted into the [a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/07/shigeru-miyamoto-to-receive-french-honour/]Ordre des Arts et des Lettres[/a] about 4 years ago.
Oh man, he even got a shiny medal for it?

Lucky bastard!

That is pretty damn cool though.

Gigaguy64 said:
i wonder if he would provide his own sword if that ever happened.
If it wasn't a Master Sword replica, I would be sorely disappointed.
 

Silva

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Apr 13, 2009
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It's both interesting and heartening to see a film and television academy award this to a video game developer, even though it has happened before. There is clearly some respect in the higher echelons of the art hierarchy of Britain for gaming.

I think that this acknowledgement of Miyamoto is evidence that the old argument that games can't be art will slowly die over time. After all, the generations that have been born since the beginning of gaming will eventually become the only ones alive, and on the basis of probability some of those gamers will take up high positions in the world arts community.

Respect where respect is due is what stabilises a creative industry, and video gaming is no exception. I hope we see more developers acknowledged in this way in the future, and I am certain that this will occur.

Rainboq said:
John Funk said:
Congratulations to our man Shigeru. While videogames might well exist today if it hadn't been for you, I don't want to know what they'd look like.
Who knows? The games industry could be built on continually creating new IPs, no sequels, no movie tie-ins....
And thus wouldn't have survived the 90's without losing a lot of money, as opposed to having a Golden Age of profits and critical success at about that time. I think that Miyamoto did the industry a huge favour by creating franchises which inspired the hardcore to be emotionally attached to certain recurring characters.
 

That's Funny

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Jul 20, 2009
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Congratulations to Miyamoto, no doubt he deserves this after all the hard work he has done for the industry.