This year's Game Developers Choice Awards will honor Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Loading

"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," said Meggan Scavio, general manager of GDC events. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Sakaguchi is being honored for his various contributions to iconic RPGs, including Final Fantasy, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, and Kingdom Hearts. He served as President of Square USA in 1995, and directed the movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He later left Square and founded Mistwalker, the studio behind Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.Sakaguchi was chosen for the award by the Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee. The GDCAs will take place Wednesday, March 4, as part of the Game Developers Conference. Past recipients have included the BioWare doctors, Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Will Wright.

Steve Watts is a freelance writer who thinks--nay, knows--that Final Fantasy 6 is still the best one. You can read more of his keen insights by following him on Twitter and IGN