The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has revealed its 24th hall of fame honoree: longtime Sony vet Connie Booth.
Booth joined Sony, where she held various positions within Sony Electronic Publishing Company, in 1989. In 1995, she joined the newly formed Sony Computer Entertainment America as a producer and exec producer of product development, where she worked with game studio Naughty Dog and Universal Interactive Studios to release Crash Bandicoot, the platforming adventure game whose star became one of PlayStation’s most recognizable characters.
“It is an incredible honor to be inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame,” Booth tells The Hollywood Reporter. “To be recognized for my passion in nurturing creative excellence in teams is very humbling.”
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By 1998, Booth had become the director of product development and worked on such titles as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, The Last of Us and Marvel’s Spider-Man, to name a few. She is currently the vp product development at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
“I believe that the best franchises start with a talented and passionate development team armed with the time, resources and skill sets necessary to execute their unique vision at a really high level of quality,” she says.
Booth is currently working on two of Sony’s most anticipated games of 2020, Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 2.
“Over the past 25 years the scale and fidelity of games, and the teams who create them, have grown dramatically,” says Booth. “As technology has progressed, we have seen a drastic shift toward more immediate and ongoing delivery of new game content. What hasn’t changed is the essential pact between creators and players to meet and engage in deeply immersive interactive entertainment.”
Booth joins past inductees into AIAS’ hall of fame such as Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney (2012), Rockstar Games founders Dan and Sam Houser (2014), video game director Hideo Kojima (2016) and head of Halo developer 343 Industries Bonnie Ross (2019).
“We are honored to have Connie as our hall of fame recipient,” says Meggan Scavio, president of AIAS. “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.”
Booth will be inducted into the hall of fame during the 23rd Annual DICE Awards ceremony at the DICE Summit on Feb. 13 at the Aria Convention Center in Las Vegas.
