2009 [13th] Japan Media Arts Festival | Special Achievement Prize

Following the Jury's recommendations, we commend the person who has made a great contribution to the media arts.

MIYAMOTO Shigeru (Game Creator)

Born in Sonobe-cho, Kyoto in November 1952. MIYAMOTO Shigeru graduated from Kanazawa College of Art and started working for Nintendo Co. Ltd. in 1977. He currently holds the position of Executive Director/General Director of Informational Development. He has developed several of the seminal titles in the history of video games, including Donkey Kong, Super Mario, and The Legend of Zelda. He has received numerous awards, both locally and internationally, including the Japan Inter-Design Award in 1990; MVP at the Japan Software Awards ’92 in 1993; Best Producer/Director Award at the AMD Awards ’96 in 1997; THE HALL OF FAME AWARD at The First Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (USA) in 1998; MMCA President Award at the 13th Multimedia Grand Prix in 1998; Chevalier of L'ordre national de la légion d'honneur (France) in 2006; The Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th AMD Awards in 2007; being listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the Year (USA) in 2007; Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award at the Japan Game Awards 2008; and the Asiagraph Award 2009 at the ASIAGRAPH 2009. His recent works include many big selling titles, such as PIKMIN, nintendogs, Wii Sports series, Wii Fit series, and Wii Music.

MIYAMOTO Shigeru is the creator of Mario, the world famous game character. To produce a work loved by people beyond language and culture is a dream for any media artist. Although he denies his artistry, claiming that what he created was merchandise and not art, who knows how many people have been introduced to the joy of video games through his titles? There are surely no active modern game developers who can say they have not been influenced to some degree by his work. Without MIYAMOTO the history of video games would have been totally different. We would like to recognize and praise his past endeavors, and show our appreciation for the tremendous fun that he has enabled us to experience with his excellent games. We are honoring this award with the sincere hope that his career will continue to flourish into the future.

I would like to express my gratitude for being chosen for this prestigious award. As you may know, creating a game requires many people’s support. I feel very honored to receive the recognition for this personally, and I humbly accept it for my many years of service. The time when I first started to create games was the heyday of personal computers, but I felt that a thick wall existed between PC developers and game developers. I think the wall has now completely come down. One important factor in this development is that the generation who grew up playing games are now active in the field of PCs. I hope that I can continue to create things that can convey the fascination of interactive media to people in the future irrespective of genres.