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Ian Livingstone, founder of the Games Workshop retail chain, with flatmates John Peake and Steve Jackson, is now Sir Ian Livingstone, the recipient of a knighthood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honour List. Previously Livingstone was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours both for services to the computer gaming industry.
As well as being the co-founder of Games Workshop, Sir Ian Livingstone is also the co-founder with Steve Jackson of the Fighting Fantasy role-playing gamebooks. Under the direction of Livingstone and Jackson, Games Workshop expanded from a bedroom mail-order company to a successful gaming manufacturer and retail chain, with the first Games Workshop store opening in Hammersmith in 1977. To advertise the opening, Livingstone and Jackson launched the gaming magazine White Dwarf, with Livingstone as the editor. Livingstone and Jackson sold Games Workshop in 1991 for £10 million. The pair, together with Bryan Ansell, founded Citadel Miniatures in Newark to make miniatures for games. Livingstone has also invented several board games, including Boom Town, Judge Dredd, Automania, Legend of Zagor, and Dragonmasters.
In 1993, Sir Ian Livingstone became a major investor and board member in computer gaming company Domark, publisher for the original football management sim Champion Manager. In 1995, Domark was acquired by the video technology company Eidos Interactive. In 2005 Eidos was taken over by SCi and Livingstone was the only former board member to be retained, taking on the role of product acquisition director. Livingstone secured many of the company’s major franchises, including Tomb Raider and Hitman. In 2009, Japanese video-game company Square Enix completed a buyout of Eidos Interactive and Livingstone was promoted to Life President of Eidos, a position he resigned from in 2013.
In 2010 Sir Ian Livingstone was asked to act as the Skills Champion by government minister Ed Vaizey, tasked with producing a report reviewing the UK video games industry. The ‘NextGen’ report, co-authored with Alex Hope of visual effects firm Double Negative, was released in 2011. Livingstone described it as a “complete bottom-up review of the whole education system relating to games.” In 2002, Livingstone won the BAFTA Interactive Special Award for outstanding contribution to the industry.
About Rich Johnston
Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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