Genyo Takeda was a key figure in the development of the GameCube

Genyo Takeda may not be a household name in quite the same way as Shigeru Miyamoto, but he's been an incredibly important staff member at Nintendo for the past few decades and his contribution to the games industry in general is being recognised by The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

It has been announced that Takeda - who currently serves as Special Corporate Advisor at Nintendo following his retirement in 2017 - will be the seventh Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. 

Takeda joined Nintendo in 1972 and created the company's first coin-op - EVR Race - in 1975. He would later create the Punch-Out!! and StarTropics franchises, and was instrumental in the development of the Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented by Don James, AIAS Board Member and Executive Vice President of Operations at Nintendo of America at the 21st D.I.C.E. Awards which take place on Thursday, February 22nd, 2018 in Las Vegas. Greg Miller will be co-host along with Jessica Chobot.

Speaking about Takeda's award, Don James said:

I’ve seen the impact that Takeda-san had on Nintendo having worked with him on multiple hardware launches. As a Board Member of the AIAS, I’ve seen the impact he’s had on thousands of producers and programmers as they have brought their creative visions to life on the systems he helped create. He looked at his own designs through the lens of always helping game developers. That approach to his life’s work is a great gift he gave the development community, and ultimately gamers everywhere.

Meggan Scavio, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, added:

Technologists are lucky if they are able to make one landmark piece of hardware in their lifetime, Takeda-san was responsible for multiple pieces of hardware that helped shape generations of players. Hardware has been an important element of game design and has influenced so much of the realm of possibility for game development. On behalf of the Academy’s Board of Directors, we are looking forward to paying homage to this important aspect of video game history with Takeda-san’s induction as our Lifetime Achievement recipient.

The Lifetime Achievement Award isn't handed out lightly, and previous recipients include Doug Lowenstein, Howard Lincoln, Minoru Arakawa, Ken Kutaragi, Bing Gordon and Satoru Iwata. Takeda is in good company.