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Game developer Masahiro Sakurai has announced that The Game Designer award for the Japan Game Awards has been discontinued, as he has been unable to find a successor to carry it on into the future.
As reported by IGN, Sakurai made the announcement at this year’s ceremony. He originally founded The Game Designer award in 2010, with the intention of recognising games for their creativity and originality. The last game to receive the prize was Word Game from independent studio Team9.
Sakurai also stressed the need for continued innovation in the industry, stating that while original ideas might not always equate to profitability, he fears an industry without this might “slowly die”.
Here’s what he had to say, translated live during the presentation:
“It’s been 16 years since we started [this award]. This is the last year that we’re doing it, and the reason is because there’s nobody who’s going to replace me. That is the only reason. In order to keep this award something that is really convincing and fulfills the role, it needs to be given by somebody who’s a director, who’s come up with innovative games that have changed gameplay a lot. I scouted and tried to find someone to replace me. I did some presentations to try to find somebody, too. I searched for a couple years, but nobody stepped up to replace me. There’s a lot of other judges, but none of them were able to pick up the mantle.
“Game development is always an experiment, but you keep going at it. It’s always a very difficult process. …Although the Grand Award is always so popular, I think this shows a different side of games. Unfortunately, innovativeness doesn’t always link to profitability. There’s not many people who will always drink the newest version of an interesting drink. You usually go with things you’re used to. It’s always hard for this kind of innovativeness and creativity to be recognized, but if the industry loses creativity and innovation, I think the industry as a whole will slowly die. We always need new discoveries and innovations to keep the industry fresh and alive.”
Fair comments from Sakurai, and it’s a shame he was unable to find a successor to keep the award going. In an age in which large publishers are quite averse to risk, it’s definitely hard to find true originality and innovation amongst all of the sequels and remakes. Yes, that includes you, Nintendo.
Hopefully there’s still a way to bring the award back in some way, but we fear that might be end of it.