This Sony exec is a deserving recipient for his sterling work on indie game development.
Feelgood Friday: The Indie Gaming Champion Receiving the Highest Bafta Game Awards Honor
Written by Ollie Bradley at 03/17/2023, 03:06 AM
As discussion rages over last weekend's Oscars and its distinctly slap-less ceremony, us gaming fans are looking ahead to the only awards show that matters in March: The Bafta Game Awards. And as they approach, there's one industry legend that won't have to practise his "I'm OK with not winning the award" face. Namely, Shuhei Yoshida.
You'd be forgiven for not recognizing Yoshida's name immediately. Gaming celebrities rarely take the form of higher-ups in corporations, after all. But we thought Yoshida would be a worthy inclusion in the Feelgood Friday segment for his work in championing indie game developers, in particular.
Shuhei Yoshida's glowing career led to him becoming the Vice President at Sony Computer Entertainment America, the president of Worldwide Studios, a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment, and ultimately the Head of the Independent Developer Initiative. It was in this role that Yoshida made waves by supporting indie developers alongside the Indie Game Incubator.
To mark his achievements in this field, Bafta - the UK's leading arts charity - has seen fit to bestow him with their prestigious gaming Fellowship accolade, stating that "He has consistently nurtured the creativity and innovation of the indie games industry, and regularly champions indie games through podcasts, official PlayStation videos, and the wider games media."
The Fellowship is Bafta's highest accolade, which was most recently given to Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy for her work on nurturing a diverse and inclusive working culture. 2020, meanwhile, saw bonafide gaming legend, Hideo Kojima, receive the award - for reasons we'd hope are pretty obvious.
The Bafta Games Awards 2023 will be taking place on March 30th. This year's nominations for the top awards are unsurprisingly led by Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, with the latter even being the most nominated game in the history of the Bafta Game Awards. Stray, meanwhile, the stray cat sim that took everybody by surprise and stole hearts the world over, has received a whopping nine nominations.