Doctor Who game commissioner to leave BBC

The man who commissioned the Sumo-made Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is to depart the BBC.

Simon Nelson has worked at the BBC for 14 years, predominantly at BBC Radio, where he introduced iPlayer-forerunner Radio Player.

In recent years his role over interactive widened to include all sorts of media, including the corporation’s first foray into games development, the episodic Doctor Who games.

Nelson even featured on Develop’s cover, along with designer Charles Cecil, just six months ago when we revealed the games’ development process.

He’s also talked at a number of events, such as the Develop Conference and Edinburgh Interactive, discussing the BBC’s approach to games content.

Nelson leaves at the end of the year – he won’t be replaced, instead BBC Archive directly Roly Keating will take his commissioning duties.

"Simon has proved to be an advocate of digital media and an architect of future commissioning and production structures," Media Guiardian quotes BBC Vision director Jana Bennett as saying. "Simon has decided that it’s time for a fresh challenge and will be stepping down from his role at the end of the year to make a move back to the commercial sector."