I had to look him up too. To save other people the effort, he's the lead guy behind the Elder Scrolls games (1, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and all the of the expansions for each) and Fallout 3 and 4.
Past recipients:
2015: Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy series)
2014: Ken Kutaragi
2013: Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk (Bioware)
2012: Warren Spector (Deus Ex, System Shock, Thief: The Dark Project)
2011: Peter Molyneux (God games)
2010: John Carmack (Doom series)
2009: Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear series)
2008: Sid Meier (Civilization series and many different simulators)
2007: Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda)
2006: Richard Garriott (Ultima)
2005: Eugene Jarvis (Defender and Robotron: 2084)
2004: Mark Cerny (SEGA, Sonic the Hedgehog)
2003: Gunpei Yokoi (1941-1997) (Game Boy, Super Mario Land series, Metroid series)
2002: Yuji Naka (Sonic the Hedgehog)
2001: Will Wright (Sim games)