New York Game Awards honors Neil Druckmann with Legend Award

The New York Video Game Critics Circle (NYVGCC) recently announced that Neil Druckmann of Naughty Dog will be the 2024 recipient of its Andrew Yoon Legend Award. The award is given to people in the games industry who have a significant body of work representing artistic and technical achievements. He joins the likes of such previous recipients as Phil Spencer, Reggie Fils-Aimé, Tim Schafer, Hideo Kojima and Todd Howard.

Harold Goldberg, president and founder of the NYVGCC, said in a statement, “Neil Druckmann’s story is an inspirational one of self-determinism. He worked his way from an internship all the way up to being a co-president at Naughty Dog. His skill for creating titles that consistently redefine cinematic gameplay and human-centric storytelling not only deserves celebrating, but his efforts to create characters that represent diverse backgrounds and perspectives have enriched content in AAA games.”

The NYVGCC is primarily honoring Druckmann’s work with Naughty Dog as the co-creator of The Last of Us series (he’s also worked on the Uncharted and Jak & Daxter series). Ryan O’Callaghan, NYVGCC’s executive director, added, “It’s an honor to have someone like Neil Druckmann as the Andrew Yoon Legend Award for my first New York Game Awards with NYVGCC. His creative vision has been monumental in pushing the games industry to captivate audiences through Naughty Dog’s expansive video game catalog and their film and TV adaptations.”

The New York Game Awards will be held live on January 23, 2024 at the SVA Theatre. It has not yet announced the nominees for its other awards, though last year’s winner of the Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year was Elden Ring.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz