Update [Tue 1st Feb, 2022 06:45 GMT]: Boon has shared a response on social media. While he was aware he would be receiving the award, he wasn’t prepared for so many kind responses:
I’d been given a heads up before & had time to process & appreciate this announcement.
But I WASN’T prepared for the response to the news by gamers & my colleagues in the biz. A big THANK YOU to the AIAS and all the kind words of support that followed. They did not go unnoticed.
Original article [Fri 28th Jan, 2022 02:15 GMT]: When you think about the video game industry – there are certain individuals who have paved the way for the rest. On the Nintendo front, one of the first people that comes to mind is the creator of Super Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto.
Soon, he’ll be joined by Mortal Kombat’s co-creator, Ed Boon, who has just been selected as The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences 25th Hall of Fame recipient and will be honored at the 25th annual D.I.C.E Awards next month.
Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, will present the 2022 Hall of Fame award to Ed. Here’s what he had to say about this legendary individual within the games industry:
“I met Ed on my very first day in the game industry at Midway and had the good fortune to watch him lead the creation of Mortal Kombat and work with so many talented people to grow it into an iconic, worldwide franchise. Ed epitomizes the best of what a game designer can be: big ideas, a great sense of humor, clear focus, and the ability to bring people together as a team. He has created not only a string of hit games but has also supported countless people on their own paths in the game industry.”
Here’s a bit more about Ed’s career, courtesy of the official PR:
“After graduating from the University of Illinois, Ed Boon started his career at Williams Electronics programming pinball machines. He eventually moved over to the video game division where he worked on his first title, High Impact Football, and its sequel Super High Impact. In 1991, he began work on Mortal Kombat, which became a smash hit in arcades and grew into a global phenomenon selling more than 75 million units to date, as well as spawning three theatrical films, animated movies, multiple television series, and comic books. Today, Mortal Kombat continues to grow in popularity with each new release. In addition, Boon and NetherRealm Studios created the best-selling and critically acclaimed Injustice video games, which have also branched out into chart-topping comics, an animated feature film and mobile games.”
Apart from Miyamoto, Boon will join many other industry icons including John Carmack (id Software), Sid Meier (Firaxis Games), Will Wright (Maxis), Gabe Newell (Valve), Todd Howard (Bethesda), Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions), Bonnie Ross (343)… the list goes on, and you can see the rest over on the official Hall of Fame page.
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