Jacobson gets OBE

Miles Jacobson, the studio director of Football Manager developer and Championship Manager creator Sports Interactive has been awarded an OBE in the most recent New Year’s Honours list for services to the games industry.

"Thank you to all those [who have congratulated me)," Jacobson wrote on the SI forums.

"It really is very humbling, and is further recognition for the whole SI team around the world. I’m a bit lost for words at the moment, so I’ll leave it at that for now."

SI co-founder Oliver Collyer added: "We think this is very much deserved for all the hard work involved in not only establishing a good sense of business to a raw and young Sports Interactive all those years ago, but also evolving the studio into an equal and more professional partner with its publisher and also a responsible one, via the involvement with various charities, as well as taking away the things we don’t like doing to allow us to concentrate on coding.

"The honour is also deserved recognition for lots of other work Miles has done away from SI over the years on the BAFTA games committee, Develop advisory board and as a founding trustee of GamesAid as well as many other advisory committees.

"Oh, apparently he was in the frame for a knighthood but they didn’t have a platform high enough to allow the appropriate member of the Royal Family to reach his shoulder with their sword so they settled for the OBE instead."

Other gaming OBE’s include Peter Molyneux and Ian Livingstone.