Longtime PlayStation executive and producer Shuhei Yoshida will receive an honorary BAFTA Fellowship for services to screen arts. A fellowship is the BAFTA’s highest honor, and Yoshida will be presented with it during the BAFTA Game Awards on March 30, 2023, at 6:50 p.m. British Summer Time (Eastern +5).
“Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with incredibly talented teams who’ve developed some of the best games in the industry,” Yoshida said in a statement. “I’ve always celebrated alongside these developers as their games have received well-deserved awards – it is an amazing honor for me to receive an accolade of my own.”
While Yoshida built his career as one of the pioneers of the PlayStation project, he has since developed a reputation as a champion of independent developers. In 2019, Sony chose Yoshida to lead the company’s Independent Developer Initiative, a project to help make game development accessible to smaller teams and to help with promotion and other aspects of publishing.
“Shuhei Yoshida is a pioneer in the games world and is hugely deserving of a BAFTA Fellowship,” BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip said. “His collaborative, supportive approach continues to drive progress within the industry, using his platform to promote the voices and craft of others and champion the work of independent designers, studios and creatives. We look forward to honoring his contribution to games at the ceremony.”
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF