Ilkka Paananen picked up a Fellowship at the BAFTA Games Awards on Friday in honour of his work as Supercell boss and his contributions to the games industry as an investor, mentor and philanthropist.
London Venture Partners boss David Gardner introduced Paananen on the night, and said that Supercell has “helped redefine what mobile games can be”. He also noted that Paananen’s career in games started when we was 22, and was given his first CEO role “simply because someone had to take the job”.
Gardner added that even as the company grows and reaches its fifteenth year, Paananen still meets every new Supercell employee personally, and also spends time as an investor, mentor to founders and engages in charity work through his We Foundation, which works to improve the lives of young people and families in Finland.
In a video package leading up to Paananen’s speech, industry luminaries including former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida, EA founder Trip Hawkins, Trailmix founder Carolin Krenzer and Ustwo Games boss Maria Sayans also paid tribute to the Supercell boss.
There was also a nod to his time at Digital Chocolate, which as we chronicled recently was a hotbed of talent in mobile’s early years. Paananen then took to the stage to talk through Supercell’s philosophy, thanking the studio’s players, creator community and in particular its game teams. Here’s the speech in full:
Thank you so much. This is an incredible, incredible honour. As I look at the previous BAFTA fellows, I see people who were all my childhood heroes and people shaped how I think about games, how I fell in love with games, and just to be recognised alongside them, feels unreal, to be honest.
I also wanted to make something clear, if it wasn’t clear from David’s introduction, I actually have not created any of Supercell’s games. I mean, none of our hit games are my ideas. So people ask me all the time, like, if that’s the case, what do you actually do then? My parents ask, my kids ask…it’s a fair question.
So what have I been doing then, the last 26 years? And I think the honest answer is that I’ve been trying to build an environment where incredibly talented, creative people can do the best work of their careers. And as David said at Supercell we call it the ‘cell structure’ of these small, independent teams with creative freedom.
So in sort of funny way, my product isn’t actually the games. I feel my product is the culture and the organisation that has enabled other people to create these great games, which I realise might be the least exciting thing anyone has ever said on this stage, organisations are hardly as exciting as games, but I’m genuinely proud of it.
Also I believe this is probably the first time a BAFTA Fellowship recognises the role of mobile games, and that means a lot. Not just for Supercell, but for the entire mobile games industry and all of the amazing people have helped build it, and some of them, including our partners from the platform side, are here tonight to celebrate it.
So people sometimes ask me, what does it feel like to do what I do? And the best way I can describe it is, imagine getting to be a part of something that you are deeply passionate about, getting to do it every day with people who are incredibly smart but yet very nice people, and then somehow you are able to call it work. And you know, you even get paid for it sometimes. So I just feel like super lucky to be part of it.
Most importantly I also want to say to our players and the content creators, the community around Supercell games is something truly special. I mean, your passion, your support over all these years, has meant everything to us at Supercell, and we obviously would not be here without you.
And then to my dear Supercell colleagues, some of whom are here tonight. I want you to know it really should be all of you standing here with me right now, every single one of you – this award belongs to you, to every game developer, every artist, every programmer, every designer and every other person at Supercell, past and present, because you poured your heart and soul into our games and building a company. So please do take pride in this award, because this award is yours.
And then finally, to my wife and to my family, you have somehow put up with someone who has spent last 26 years trying to be the world’s least powerful CEO, and I still can’t fully explain what I do for a living. But thank you for your love, thank you for your support, through all of this it, it really means more than I could ever express in words.
And then finally, thank you to BAFTA. I’m so extremely deeply honoured, and this means so much to me and to everybody at Supercell. Thank you.
