Hidetaka Miyazaki among Time Magazine's influential people of 2023

Time Magazine has deemed Hidetaka Miyazaki one of the year's most influential people. 

The longtime director of FromSoftware was given the honor by Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann. In his writeup of Miyazaki for the magazine, Druckmann praised the director's games for "making the player feel accomplished and smart." 

It's worth noting that Miyazaki is the second game developer to ever be included in Time's list of influential people. The very first was Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto back in 2007.

Miyazaki has been with FromSoft since 2005's Armored Core: Last Raven, where he worked as a planner on the game. From 2006's Armored Core 4 and onwards, he's served as director on the developer's premium titles such as Demon's Souls, Dark Souls I and Dark Souls III, and Bloodborne. 

Speaking to Miyazaki's most recent game, Elden Ring, Druckmann called it a "a great ambassador for video games and the unique feelings they can effect in the player. [...] [Miyazaki] refuses to overexplain the mechanics or the lore, but rather puts his trust in the player to figure it out on their own."

Even more praise be unto Elden Ring

Elden Ring turned a year old this past February, and its launch has been nothing short of massive for FromSoftware. 

On the day of the game's 1-year anniversary, the developer revealed the game sold 20 million copies worldwide. Glowing reviews and the goodwill FromSoft had earned in the west since Demon's Souls' release in 2009 made the game's launch an event unto itself. 

Towards the end of 2022, Elden Ring racked up numerous Game of the Year awards from outlets such as The Game Awards, the DICE Awards, and the Game Developers ChoiceAwards . 

It was also among the most-played games on Steam for the year. That includes players who beat the game and have yet to actually do so. 

If you can't tell by now: players loved them some Elden Ring, and it's a good thing that FromSoftware plans to release more content for the game in the near future.

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