The maker of the critically acclaimed games Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls has received one of France's highest honors for his work in the field of video games.

David Cage, 44, is being honored by joining the Legion D'honneur, or Legion of Honor, similar to being knighted in the United Kingdom, as Gamasutra translated from an article in French publication Le Figaro. Cage is the first video game developer to be given this prestigious award.

A veteran of the video game industry, Cage rose to prominence when he founded Quantic Dreams. The studio created the widely successful game Heavy Rain in 2010 that changed how many viewed the medium's storytelling capabilities. Heavy Rain featured multiple protagonists and a wide, branching storyline that changed based on the player's actions. A spiritual successor, Beyond: Two Souls featured the voice work of Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page and was released in 2013. Both games appeared exclusively on the PlayStation 3.

The video game executive will receive the rank of Chevalier on March 13. The rank of Chevalier is awarded to those with 25 years of professional activity or 20 years of public service. Recipients of the award must also have "eminent merits" in order to be eligible to join the ranks of the Legion of Honor. There is a cap for the amount of Knights allowed in the order, with only 113,425 Knights allowed. Currently, there are 74,384 Knights living and dead that have accepted the award. Others who have been given the award include Jacques Cousteau, Alexander Graham Bell and U2 singer Bono. The Legion of Honor was started by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.

Previously, Shigeru Miyamoto, Michel Ancel and Frederick Raynal were all given the Chevalier of Arts and Letters by France's minister of culture in 2006; however, this is a separate award from the Legion of Honor. Cage finds himself in rare company, but considering the way that his games have shaped the modern techniques of storytelling in games, Cage is deserving of the award. Quantic Dream's games have oftentimes been compared to movies, and now with the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Cage and the rest of his team will be able to further stretch the boundaries of storytelling on the new machines.