While video games are full of passionate and excited people, there are certain people in the gaming industry that have a huge impact. Games are certainly more than one person, but sometimes there are names that bubble to the top. This isn’t about one single person, and we’d certainly love to honor everyone who helped make games and bring them to the players. We’d love to honor every wonderful individual in this industry. How could we choose just one? Somehow we managed to pick the person that best represented the passion and hard work in games for 2019. Here are the PlayStation LifeStyle nominations for Industry Person of the Year in 2019.
- Hideo Kojima (Director, Death Stranding)
- Mat Piscatella (Industry Analyst)
- Tetsuya Nomura (and his E3 Shorts)
- Sam Lake (Director, Control)
- Cory Barlog (for making me cry in the Raising Kratos Documentary)
Industry Person of the Year 2019 Winner
Hideo Kojima (Director, Death Stranding)
Death Stranding is the brainchild of Hideo Kojima, and it rocked the industry from announcement to release. There are few people willing or able to take the kinds of risks that Kojima takes with his games, and while it takes an army of people to bring them to life, it’s his vision that helms the creative process, keeping a guiding line, and making something as bizarre as Death Stranding actually all come together and make sense in the end. He’s got a passion for creativity that’s infectious, a lover of film, music, and games alike. Kojima is someone that best represents that creative voice of passion in all of us.
Reader’s Choice Winner
Hideo Kojima (Director, Death Stranding)
Our readers agreed. Hideo Kojima had a huge impact on the industry this year. While I think everyone understands that he didn’t singlehandedly create Death Stranding, he’s the kind of creative leader that can bring a massive and ambitious project like that to fruition, guiding a great team and unifying them under his creative direction.
Don’t miss our full lineup of nominees and winners for the PlayStation LifeStyle Game of the Year awards. We’ll be revealing the rest of our winners tomorrow, leading up to the Game of the Year award!
