Games industry veteran Michael French has been awarded an MBE as part of the New Year Honours List 2026.
French was awarded this honour for his services to not only the games industry, but also to inclusion – referencing his launching the Game Changer initiative and helping to devise the Ensemble exhibition – and charity, in recognition of his work with the video games charity GamesAid.
The GamesAid Gala Night, which he developed and runs, has raised more than £50,000 to date.
French joined the games industry in 2002 at publisher Intent Media, initially working at trade paper MCV as an editorial assistant before becoming deputy editor the following year.
After a brief stint at Future Publishing, French returned to Intent and was made editor of Develop, then rose to be editor-in-chief of both MCV and Develop in 2008.
In 2013, he was promoted to publisher of the two games brands, before leaving two years later to become the head of Games London where he launched London Games Festival in 2016. The show supports more than 1,000 companies and has created close-to 900 jobs. That’s on top of generating £90 million in business.
102,000 people attended the 2025 edition of London Games Festival, including 5,000 people from the games industries of 31 countries.
“I am very grateful to have been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list 2026,” French told Gamesindustry.biz.
“It’s a huge personal honour and also great recognition for an industry I’m so passionate about. We have just celebrated 10 years of Games London and the London Games Festival, plus three years of our Game Changer programme. These milestones can’t be reached by the efforts of one person alone, so I would like to also thank the many wonderful colleagues and collaborators I have worked with on the projects that prompted this award.”
In recent years, many members of the video games industry have been recognised in the Honours List.
Within the last decade, Game Dev Heroes co-founder Alex Boucher, Wales Interactive co-founder David Banner, Blippar co-founder Jessica Butcher, PlayMob’s Jude Ower, SpecialEffect chief Dr Mick Donegan and Team17 co-founder Debbie Beswick have all received MBEs.
That’s on top of the former CEO of Ukie, Dr Jo Twist, receiving an OBE in 2016, TIGA CEO Richard Wilson being awarded an OBE the following year and Ubisoft’s Giselle Elizabeth Stewart receiving an OBE in 2016.
In 2022, Sir Ian Livingstone was knighted, having previously been awarded an OBE and CBE. In 2024, both Jason and Chris Kingsley were awarded CBEs, following their receiving OBEs 12 years prior.
