It's the time of year when her majesty The Queen bestows MBEs and other honours on Brits that have given considerable services to British culture and industry, with a number of games devs and execs picking up honours in the 2009 list.
Firstly, the two brothers who founded London-based Sports Interactive - they of the original Championship Manager and (more recently) Football Manager fame - have been given MBEs.
Services to football and gaming
Oliver and Paul Collyer founded Sports Interactive way back in 1992. A statement published on the official SI Games forum says: "We are really proud to have been given this honour, which is something we never thought would happen to us.
"We first started working on the ideas that have become the Football Manager series over 20 years ago because we wanted to make football management games that we wanted to play. That the games have been so successful was never part of the master plan, and we have to thank everyone on the team at Sports Interactive for all their work over the last two decades, as well as our teams of researchers, testers, moderators, Sega and our other publishing partners, and our community for everything they've done, as we certainly wouldn't be able to be accepting this honour without all of their hard work.
"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.
"We feel really lucky to be receiving this honour because we've been lucky enough to spend our lives doing something we enjoy, and indulging one's passion is easy - therefore we dedicate the awards to everyone who has helped us along the way - thank you to all of you."
Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens was also given a CBE and ELSPA boss Paul Jackson was given an OBE for their services to the UK's flourishing games industry.
