Miyamoto to get knighthood

By Ellie Gibson Published 9 March, 2006

Courtesy of French government.

Top videogame creators Shigeru Miyamoto, Michel Ancel and Frederick Raynal are to be awarded with knighthoods in the Order of Arts and Letters in Paris next Monday, becoming the first game creators ever to receive this honour in France.

Miyamoto is the creator of many of Nintendo's world famous franchises, including Mario and Zelda, while Ancel is the designer behind Rayman, Beyond Good and Evil and last Christmas' hit title King Kong. Raynal is best-known as the creator of Alone In The Dark.

Up to 200 people are knighted in the Order of Arts and Letters every year, but this is the first time that creators of videogames have been included in the list. The awards will be presented to the trio by French Minister of Culture Renard Donnedieu de Vabres next Monday.

Unlike British knighthoods, the French knighthoods do not allow the holder to add "Sir" in front of their names. No game creator has ever been knighted in the UK, although both Argonaut founder Jez San and Lionhead and Bullfrog founder Peter Molyneux have been awarded OBEs.

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About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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