The only two developers that have even the smallest claim to the title are Miyamoto and Will Wright. No other developers come close in terms of renown. Maybe Sid Maier, but only because he started getting billing. A super, super distant fourth would probably be Kojima. Beyond that very few developers have celebrity status at all. We may know their names, but they aren't really icons in the same way.
If you want to go with a console guy, you'd probably say Miyamoto. If you want a PC guy, you'd say Wright. Miyamoto is probably more THE guy, but Wright isn't exactly a bad choice.
My consoles and the fates they suffered:
Atari 7800 (Sold), Intellivision (Thrown out), Gameboy (Lost), Super Nintendo (Stolen), Super Nintendo (2nd copy) (Thrown out by mother), Nintendo 64 (Still own), Super Nintendo (3rd copy) (Still own), Wii (Sold)
A more detailed history appears on my profile.
