France has formally knighted longtime Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma for his storytelling craft, years after first announcing the honor and amid a wider push to treat games as serious culture.
Kotaku reported that the French government gave Aonuma the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, known in French as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, with the medallion presented at the Ministry of Culture.
Culture Minister Catherine Pégard handed him the award in a ceremony tied to the past week, with a social post from October 23, 2026, describing the investiture that morning. France first announced the knighthood in 2023. The distinction can go to artists regardless of nationality.
Pégard framed the honor around imagination and reach, not bureaucracy.
"a storyteller who always leaves room for the player’s imagination"
She also thanked him for inspiring children of “the whole world to dream.”
Aonuma began working at Nintendo in 1988. He directed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, then usually served as producer on mainline Zelda entries and most spin-offs. That run helped turn a Japanese adventure series into a global standard for open exploration and player-driven wonder.
He prepared remarks in French and closed by speaking to his wife, who was in the room. The line, carried in French and rendered in English coverage, was simple and personal.
"Merci de m'avoir suivi jusqu'ici, continuons l'aventure ensemble"
In English, the sense was an invitation to “continue this adventure together.”
Aonuma was not the first game-world figure to receive the title. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto got it in 2006. Developer Peter Molyneux followed a year later. Named in Aonuma’s class were jazz musician Kenny Garrett, actress Richa Chadha, and Ranma ½ creator Rumiko Takahashi.
Earlier in 2026, the ministry also signaled plans to honor Sandfall Interactive, the studio behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Coverage noted it would be the first time an entire game studio shares one ribbon.
France is putting state prestige behind interactive work the same way it long has behind film, music, and literature. That choice treats commercial craft and mass audiences as culture worth naming out loud, not a lesser hobby left outside the hall.
When a government still knows how to honor builders who expand imagination instead of shrinking it, players notice, and so should everyone else who cares what a culture chooses to elevate.
