Word has just gone out that living legend Hideo Kojima will be given this high distinction at the 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards. Kojima's so good at what he does that he only needs one lifetime to get his second lifetime achievement award. The first one he received was awarded by the MTV Game Awards last year.

And Is it any wonder? If Metal Gear wasn't already the obvious reason, the guy was behind Snatcher, Policenauts, and Zone of the Enders. The event director of the GDC says of Kojima:

For years, Hideo Kojima’s contributions to game development have broken new ground and inspired the community to think about creating games in never-before-imagined ways.

From giving birth to the stealth action game genre to showing game makers how to interact with their players by breaking the ‘fourth wall,’ Kojima’s achievements make him an obvious choice for an award that in previous years has gone to luminaries including Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Richard Garriott, Eugene Jarvis, Mark Cerny, Gunpei Yokoi, Yuji Naka and Will Wright.

That's a mighty fine list of names Kojima's entering into (except maybe .... but anyway), and he fully deserves the honor. Kojima will be giving his keynote lecture, "Solid Game Design: Making the 'Impossible' Possible" after the awards ceremony of the GDC, which will be on March 26.