Shigeru Miyamoto, who is a videogaming legend and a Nintendo senior managing director, is set to receive the 2009 Entertainment Software Association Champion Award at an event called Nite to Unite for Kids, which is an annual video game industry get together where a fund raising dinner is organized for the benefit of charities for children. The Entertainment Software Association Foundation is the official sponsor of the whole thing.

More than 11 million dollars have been raised through the black tie event since it debuted in 1999. The gala takes place on October 22nd at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. THQ president and Chief Executive Officer Brian Farrell, Disney Interactive Studios General Manager Graham Hopper and Electronic Arts Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello are amongst the people who will take part in the event and one of them will hand the award to Shigeru Miyamoto.

Previous Champions are legendary figures like George Lucas from LucasArts, Dan DeMatteo from GameStop’s, Bing Gordon from Electronic Arts, Michael Goldstein from Toys ‘R Us’ and Ken Kutaragi from Sony Computer Entertainment.

Shigeru Miyamoto is best known as the man behind the Super Mario series of games and the guy who created and oversaw the development of such franchises like Nintendogs, Pikmin and Legend of Zelda. He is largely credited as one of the driving forces behind innovation in Nintendo games and he is well known for his willingness to delay games in order to offer gamers a better experience.

Michael D. Gallagher, who is the president of the Entertainment Software Association, stated that “Miyamoto-san truly has defined video games as we know them today. 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”.