Molyneux to receive BAFTA Fellowship

Veteran game studio boss Peter Molyneux is next in line for the BAFTA Fellowship, the organisation has said.

Molyneux follows a prestigious line of Fellowship award winners, from Shigeru Miyamoto to Will Wright and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.

He is the second creative to be awarded the Fellowship this year.

Molyneux said, “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it would be possible for me to accept one of the greatest honours the entertainment industry has to offer.”

“My first thought on learning that I was awarded an Academy Fellowship was that to be in the company of some of the greatest talents the entertainment industry has ever seen is truly humbling and secondly that this an award not just for myself, but for all the people I’ve ever worked with.”

The prize will add to a strong year for Molyneux, who next week will take home the Lifetime Achievement prize at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

In 2004 he was honoured the Develop Legend Award.

The MGS Europe Creative Director, who broke onto the scene with his old Guildford studio Bullfrog, has been building popular and innovative games for over 20 years.

He went on to found Lionhead, the studio behind the Fable series which he eventually sold to Microsoft for an undisclosed fee. In 2009 he was appointed Europe Creative Director for Microsoft Game Studios.

“We are delighted to be honouring Peter at this point in his long and successful career in video games,” said BAFTA chief executive Amanda Berry OBE.

“He is one of the leading figures in the development of video games as an art form and an inspiration to the next generation of creative minds”.

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards will take place on Wednesday 16 March at the London Hilton on Park Lane.