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Rebellion co-founder Jason Kingsley has been named an Officer of the British Empire on the Queen’s birthday honors list for services to the economy.
An industry veteran of over twenty years who also co-founded UK trade body Tiga, Kingsley spoke to the BBC to address the many issues facing games developers and publishers as he recieves one of his nations highest honors.
Pointing to the successful push by Tiga and other industry groups for tax breaks to the games industry, Kingsley said Britain is well positioned to take advantage of a very fluid market.
"Gaming is set to change massively over the next five years," he explained.
"How people access games and what they play them on is changing."
"This is probably not good news for retail but it is good news for consumer and developer alike, thanks, in no small part, to improving data infrastructure, new business models and new technology like smartphones and tablets."
The cause of all of this is the growing move to digital formats for sales and payment, and even gaming itself as streaming comes into its own as a platform, leading Kingsley to predict
Kingsley cited the rise of new payment and business models as examples of a rapidly evolving market, and said he expects to even more change in the next five years.
With digital distribution set to relegate physical media to the status of VHS and Vinyl, more gamers than ever are online.
Kingsley believes that social features are going to become an almost standard element to modern games, and will become even more linked to the social web than currently anticipated.
"There is no doubt that UK developers over the past three decades have worked hard to put the country in a very strong position and it is a platform upon which we can build to ensure computer games have a rosy future for the next 30 years and beyond," Kingsley concluded.
"These are difficult and challenging times but these are also exciting times."
