MBE for Charles Cecil

Charles Cecil has been given an order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

The creator of Broken Sword and founder of Revolution Software has been named as a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the computer games industry.

Charles has been working in the games industry since it began, having formed his own business making and selling games before working for US Gold and Activision.

He set up Revolution Software in 1990. Broken Sword is the studio’s most famous creation. Under Cecil, the game has seen numerous iterations and re-releases – most recently a hugely acclaimed release for iOS formats.

Cecil has worked on almost 20 titles, including the BBC’s ambitious series of 2010 Doctor Who episodic adventure games.

He has also been a vocal advocate of developers taking on new business models to stay head – he personally is one of the few to have made the ‘Hollywood model’ work, taking a director/exec producer role and building up teams to suit projects.

"I have had the privilege, and good fortune, to have been creating computer games since the inception of this extraordinary industry, and am profoundly honoured to now be awarded an MBE," he told Develop.

(Of course, with all due respect to HRH, she’s been a bit slow on the uptake here – we named Charles Development Legend at the 2006 Develop Awards; only two weeks ago his studio featured in the Develop 100 list of the world’s best studios.)