The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), which operates the annual DICE Summit, announced today that its 24th Hall of Fame recipient will be Connie Booth, Vice President of Product Development at Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). Booth will be the second woman to be honored in consecutive years after last year’s Hall of Fame induction for Microsoft’s Bonnie Ross, head of 343 Industries.
Prior to Ross, the only other woman who was granted entry into the AIAS Hall of Fame was Dani Bunten Berry, inducted in 2007. Similarly, last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Amy Hennig, was actually the first woman to gain that award at the GDC Awards. At least the industry is starting to make progress.
Booth has been an integral part of Sony Interactive Entertainment for 25 years. Starting back in 1995 with Sony Computer Entertainment America, she served as an executive producer and worked closely with Naughty Dog and Universal Interactive Studios to release Crash Bandicoot. Then, as Director of Product Development back in 1998, Booth helped bring to market a number of acclaimed PlayStation exclusives, including Syphon Filter, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Ratchet & Clank, inFamous, Resistance Fall of Man, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Days Gone, and Marvel’s Spider-Man.
More recently, Booth has worked to incubate younger talent in the industry, including assisting Pixelopus, the developers behind PS4 exclusive Concrete Genie.
“We are honored to have Connie as our Hall of Fame recipient,” said AIAS President Meggan Scavio. “For over two decades, she has been a leading voice and advocate for countless PlayStation franchises as well as nurturing new talent in the industry. Her tireless work and passion have had an indelible impact on game makers, allowing their creative visions to flourish.”
The AIAS Hall of Fame went for a dozen years without honoring any women in the industry. Clearly, the organization is not going to allow that to happen again. Ross told us last year that she’s encouraged by the progress the industry has made in recognizing and honoring a more diverse crowd.
“I would look at it as more I’m really hopeful for the progress we have made and I think it’s great… So, instead of looking back — because you’re right, I don’t know why it took us so long — I think that we’re really as an industry starting to grow up. I think that we’ve always been a pretty young industry and I think we’re just kind of pivoting to entertainment is for everyone. Not every game is for everyone but we also want diverse people working on games such that we have a wide selection of games,” Ross told GameDaily last year.
Booth will officially enter the Hall of Fame during the DICE Awards in Las Vegas on February 13.
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