Clash Of Clans boss to receive Bafta Fellowship award, for some reason

Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen will be honoured with the prestigious Bafta Fellowship this month, following in the footsteps of Shigeru Miyamoto and Gabe Newell.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looks set to sweep this year’s Bafta Games Awards with a total of 12 nominations, but there’s one gong the role-player definitely isn’t winning.

Ahead of the ceremony at London’s Southbank Centre on April 17, Bafta has announced Supercell CEO and co-founder Ilkka Paananen will receive the event’s biggest accolade, the Bafta Fellowship, which recognises figures who have shaped the games industry.

Paananen co-founded developer Supercell in 2010. Since then, it’s become known for hugely popular mobile games like Clash Of Clans, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars. The Finnish company was bought by Tencent in 2016, at a value of €8.4 billion (£7.3 billion).

Beyond Supercell, Paananen co-founded the Ilkka Paananen Foundation in 2015 which aims to advance social and mental well-being among children, young people, and families, partly through educational games.

Previous recipients within the games industry include Shigeru Miyamoto, Shuhei Yoshida, Siobhan Reddy, Hideo Kojima, Tim Schafer, David Braben, Gabe Newell, Yoko Shimomura, Peter Molyneux, and Will Wright.

Expert, exclusive gaming analysis

Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.

‘Receiving the Bafta Fellowship is an incredible honour,’ Paananen said. ‘Looking at the names of previous Fellows, I see so many of my personal heroes – people whose work has inspired me and who I continue to look up to. Being included in their company is something I never could have imagined.

‘Throughout my career, I have been extremely fortunate. But my greatest fortune, by far, has been the privilege of working with amazingly talented and passionate game developers over the past 25 years. They are the ones who create the magic. This award truly belongs to each and every one of them.’

While Paananen has certainly had a big impact on the games industry, the choice is a strange one given games like Clash Of Clans don’t exactly represent the peak of the industry’s artistic merits. When you have so many famous creators that haven’t yet received a Fellowship – to pick two at random, John Romero and Hidetaka Miyazaki – it’s a peculiar choice.

If the only criteria is that the games are financially successful then there seems no reason not to give the awards to the heads of EA and Activision as well.

Speaking about this year’s award, Bafta CEO, Jane Millichip, said: ‘It is a real privilege to honour Ilkka with the BAFTA Fellowship this year. A visionary leader in games, he has built a globally influential company while championing creative collaboration and trust at every level.

‘His deep respect and commitment to nurturing emerging talent and his ongoing support for young people reflect the very best of BAFTA’s values. We are delighted to celebrate his exceptional contribution to the industry and look forward to presenting him with this honour at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards with Google Play.’

Just as a reminder, she’s talking about the guy who publishes microtransaction-filled mobile games like Clash Of Clans, and who is not himself a creative.

Aside from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, other nominated games at this year’s ceremony include Dispatch, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, Arc Raiders, and Blue Prince.