Final Fantasy Creator to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, will be receiving a lifetime achievement award at the 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The awards ceremony will take place on the evening of March 4 at the Moscone Convention Center during the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

Sakaguchi was the director of planning and development at Square Company, Ltd. (now Square Enix) where he created Final Fantasy, a role-playing game that would go on to spawn numerous sequels, spinoffs, films, and television series. The game was named Final Fantasy in reference to his plan to leave the industry if the project was not successful, and with the intention of being the studio's final project before it went bankrupt. Final Fantasy went on to be a success, establishing a legacy that has carried on until today.

"Final Fantasy helped pave the way for game stories that dealt with death, regret and character development in a mature and significant way, and we’re proud to honor Sakaguchi-san as a true leader in the space, and an inspired game developer," GDC events general manager Meggan Scavio said.

Sakaguchi went on to found development house Mistwalker in 2004. There he assisted with the creation of Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story and Terra Battle.

This year's Choice Awards will be hosted by Double Fine Productions founder Tim Schafer. GameSpot will be hosting the awards' live stream on site, so be sure to tune in for live coverage on March 4.