The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced that Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming and head of Xbox, will receive the AIAS Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th Annual DICE Awards.
The annual awards show will be held on February 24 in Las Vegas, Nevada where Bethesda Game Studios game director Todd Howard will present Spencer with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Credit: AIAS
Spencer has been in the video game industry for over 30 years. He joined Microsoft in 1988 as an intern and has been with the company ever since. Spencer began to oversee Xbox starting with the launch of the Xbox One S and has overseen the growth of several key products including the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Game Pass.
Under his tenure, the Xbox Game Studios division has grown tremendously as Spencer oversaw key acquisitions including Mojang, ZeniMax Media, and most recently the news that Xbox plans to acquire Activision Blizzard.
“Phil Spencer has demonstrated both passion and leadership throughout his entire career at Microsoft. He’s responsible for countless impactful and pivotal initiatives that have reverberated throughout the entire gaming industry,” says AIAS president Meggan Scavio. “On behalf of the Academy’s Board of Directors, we are looking forward to celebrating Spencer’s important impact on video game history by presenting him with our Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Previous winners of the AIAS Lifetime Achievement award include former Nintendo of America bosses Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln, PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, ESA founder Doug Lowenstein, former EA CCO Bing Gordon, former Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, and Nintendo corporate advisor Genyo Takeda.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
