Ralph Baer to Receive DICE Pioneer Award Posthumously

Ralph Baer, the creator of the first home video game console who passed away last year, will be honored by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) with the seventh Pioneer Award. Al Alcorn, who's remembered for the development of PONG, will receive the eighth Pioneer Award.

The AIAS says the special honor is reseved for individuals whose career-spanning work has helped shape and define the industry through the creation of a new techonology approach or the introduction of a new genre.

The 2015 Pioneer Award will be presented to Alcorn and posthumously to Baer by Rich Hilleman, chief creative director at Electronic Arts and AIAS board member, during the 18th D.I.C.E. Awards on February 5, 2015, in Las Vegas.

"Ralph and Al are the very definition of Pioneers,” Hilleman said. “Every publisher, every developer, every platform and all of the billions of players in the world stand on their sturdy shoulders. I am one of many who owe nearly all of what I have done to the remarkable talent and vision of these two giants."

Previous recipients of the Pioneer Award include David Crane, co-founder of Activision and creator of games such as Pitfall and A Boy and his Blob, Ed Logg, programmer of the arcade era with Asteroids, Centipede, and Gauntlet, and Eugene Jarvis, best known for his work in the arcade era, with Defender and Robotron: 2084.

Ralph Baer died at 92 in early December 2014. His life and work profoundly sculpted our industry, and so it's no surprise that prominent game developers and studios spoke out to remember the gaming pioneer.