Satoru Iwata To Be Awarded DICE’s Lifetime Achievement Award

The late Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata will be awarded DICE’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016.

This is a completely different accolade from being added to their Hall of Fame, which DICE does annually. This year, Hideo Kojima is receiving that honor.

The DICE Lifetime Achievement Award, in DICE’s words;

is reserved for individuals whose accomplishments span a broad range of disciplines over a lengthy career in the industry. Recipients are typically individuals distinguished for their business leadership and are not necessarily involved in development or the creative process. Through their leadership and ideology, these individuals have driven significant and positive change across the industry. The candidates and inductee are chosen by the Academy Board and announced at the IAAs.

Among other recipients were Ken Kutaragi, Minoru Arakawa, and Howard Lincoln.

Satoru Iwata had a 35 year career in video games, starting out as an intern for fledgling studio HAL Laboratory in 1980, and ending it as president and CEO of Nintendo. A true renaissance man, he propelled the company to its most successful years by adopting a blue ocean strategy, and heading the release of the Wii and DS consoles.

Iwata earned a legendary reputation as an extremely talented programmer, saving games and projects all the way into the late 2000s even when he already took executive roles. He also became a celebrity with the help of his Iwata Asks and the Nintendo Directs.

Last year, Iwata also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Golden Joystick Awards. This certainly won’t be the last time he’ll receive such recognition.