Epic Games CEO Getting Lifetime Achievement Award
He will receive the award on March 1 during the Game Developers Choice Awards.
Game Developers Conference organizers announced today that Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at its upcoming awards show.
An industry veteran, Sweeney is perhaps best known for his work on the Unreal Engine and the creation of the game ZZT. As CEO of Epic Games, he oversaw Gears of War before the studio sold it to Microsoft. The Unreal game series was one of Epic's early hits. Sweeney is also a philanthropist, recently donating $15 million for wildlife conversation efforts in his home state of North Carolina, which is where Epic Games is based.
Sweeney founded Epic MegaGames in 1991, with ZZT being its first release. The studio later changed names and became simply Epic Games. The Unreal Engine is one of the most widely used in all of gaming; some franchises that leverage it include BioShock, Assassin's Creed, and Batman: Arkham.
He has no doubt had a major impact on gaming, but that doesn't mean he's much of a gamer himself. "I have a clinical separation from it, like a doctor would have with a patient," he told Glixel about actually playing games.
Not one to shy away from sharing his opinion on industry topics, Sweeney rallied against Microsoft regarding the company's Universal Windows Platform. He accused Microsoft of attempting to "monopolize game development on PC."
Sweeney will receive the Lifetime Achievement award during the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 1. The show is held in San Francisco as part of the Game Developers Conference and will also be streamed live on Twitch. Follow the links below to see all the nominees for this year's event.
Some of the past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, and Fallout and Elder Scrolls designer Todd Howard. The Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which includes high-ranking people from companies such as Electronic Arts, Valve, and others, choose the recipients every year.
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