Computer games manufacturers bag honours

Codemaster is best known for its Lord of the Rings computer game

Games manufacturer Codemaster's chief executive Rodney Cousens and three other leading UK computer games personalities have been singled out for awards in the New Year's Honours list. Codemaster is best known for its Lord of the Rings computer game.

Cousens, who will receive a CBE for "services to the computer games industry ", has been in the business since 1981 and formerly worked for Activision and Acclaim. Other recent games created by Codemaster include Operation Flashpoint, Dragon Rising and Fuel.

Paul Stafford, former head of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa), will pick up an OBE. He heads rail simulator games company RailWorks.

The brothers behind the Championship Manager series, Oliver and Paul Collyer, will receive MBEs.

Sports Interactive, which the brothers founded nearly 20 years ago, issued a statement saying they were "really proud" to have received the honour, adding: "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 making games for many more years to come."

Other figures on the list from the computer industry include Dr Andrew Herbert, managing director of Microsoft Research at Cambridge, who was honoured "for services to computer science", and Maureen Cooke, head of capability and first-line service management delivering corporate IT for the Department of Works and Pensions.