Bethesda’s Todd Howard will receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Games Developer Conference (GDC), GameInformer reports.
Howard, who announced Fallout 4 during Bethesda’s E3 press conference last year, has been with the developer since 1994 and is regarded as being the driving force behind The Elder Scrolls series and the resurrection of the Fallout franchise.
His design credit at the studio was for the first PC 3D shooter to feature mouse look, The Terminator: Future Shock. Since moving onto The Elder Scrolls franchise, Howard has spearheaded development on three consecutive game of the year winners, with The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim all claiming the coveted prize.
An advisory committee comprised of Caryl Shaw (Telltale Games), Bob Rafei (Big Red Button), John Vechey (Popcap co-founder and Pluto VR), and Julien Merceron (Bandai Namco and Konami) decided to honour Howard with the award. It will be presented during the GDC Awards on Wednesday, March 16th at 18:30.
On Twitter, Bethesda commented:
Congrats to Todd Howard on the #GDC2016 Lifetime Achievement Honor. Todd & the team are honored to accept this award pic.twitter.com/Upi0vB3PXr
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) February 5, 2016
There was a palpable buzz when Howard walked out on stage at E3 in 2015 to announce Fallout 4 to the assembled media and viewers around the world via livestream but it’s worth remembering that that game is only the latest he’s been involved with. While some might lament the shift away from role play game mechanics to first person shooter game design, there’s no denying that Fallout 4 was an accomplished experience that’s only going to get bigger with the release of new DLC this year.
What that will consist of has yet to be confirmed but Bethesda has confirmed another press conference for this year’s E3.
Howard has said he has “a lot of ideas” for his next game.
