One Does Like To Play: Queen Honours Game Developers

To mark each new year The Queen of England announces her list of the British and Commonwealth people that are believed to be worthy of receiving royal honours, from OBE’s to CBE’s and even knighthoods. This year, The Queen has shown her appreciation of the games industry by awarding several members of the sector with the prestigious and rare award, an important step for the country’s largest entertainment trade, as it struggles to be recognised by the mainstream media, and government.

The Queen has been known to have dabbled in casual gaming, with an unknown source telling the UK tabloid The People that “she showed all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict”, causing THQ to even present Her Majesty with a gold plated Wii to promote their family centric games. Four leading games figures won honours including Oliver and Paul Collyer, the brothers behind the Championship Manager series, who where made Members of the British Empire (MBE). Rodney Cousens, head of Codemasters and Paul Jackson former head of industry group Elspa also achieved honours, along with Dr Andrew Herbert, who manages Microsoft’s Research labs in Cambridge, who was given an OBE.

Oliver and Paul Collyer, founders of Sports Interactive and the Football and Championship Manager games stated that:

“We are really proud to have been given this honour, which is something we never thought would happen to us. We’re still heavily involved in the games, with Paul heading up the match engine, and Ov heading up Football Manager Live, and we look forward to many more years making games with the rest of the team that so many people out there enjoy to play.”

[Source]

TRENDING