ESA's Nite To Unite To Award Nintendo's Miyamoto

Nintendo senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto will receive the 2009 ESA Champion Award at Nite to Unite for Kids, an annual video game industry fundraising dinner benefiting children's charities and sponsored by the ESA Foundation. Nintendo senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto will receive the 2009 ESA Champion Award at Nite to Unite for Kids, an annual video game industry fundraising dinner benefiting children's charities across America. The black-tie event, which includes a dinner and a silent auction, is sponsored by the ESA Foundation, the Entertainment Software Association’s charitable arm. Nite to Unite for Kids has raised over $11 million for children's charities since its inception in 1999. This year's gala will be held on October 22 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The co-chairs for the 2008 event are THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell, Disney Interactive Studios GM and EVP Graham Hopper, and Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. Past Champion Honorees include: LucasArts' George Lucas, GameStop’s Dan DeMatteo, Electronic Arts’ Bing Gordon, Toys ‘R Us’ Michael Goldstein, Nintendo's Howard Lincoln, Sega's Isao Ogawa, Sony Computer Entertainment’s Ken Kutaragi, and Electronic Boutique’s Jeffery Griffiths. “Miyamoto-san truly has defined video games as we know them today,” says ESA CEO and president Michael D. Gallagher. “With his remarkable creativity and passion for fun, family entertainment, Miyamoto-san and his team at Nintendo have produced many iconic games that appeal to audiences of all ages."