Sumo Group's CEO, Carl Cavers, has been awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours list

Carl Cavers, the co-founder and CEO of Sumo Group, has been awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King's New Year's Honours List.

This honor acknowledges his contributions to the video gaming sector.

With a career spanning three decades in gaming, Cavers occupied key positions at Gremlin and Infogrammes before co-founding Sumo in 2003 with Paul Porter, Darren Mills, and James North-Hearn.

Renowned as a prominent work-for-hire studio, Sumo has developed notable titles like Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, LittleBigPlanet 3, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Crackdown 3. The studio has also contributed to games such as Forza Horizon 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and Call of Duty Vanguard. Additionally, Sumo is progressively creating and releasing its own titles, including Snake Pass and Still Wakes The Deep.

Sumo has frequently been recognized in the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places to Work Awards, particularly for its initiatives in education and youth engagement. In 2021, Tencent acquired the studio in a $1.27 billion transaction. Despite some restructuring, Sumo remains one of the UK's largest development entities.

Apart from his role at Sumo, Cavers is an advocate for the gaming industry at large. He actively participates in mentorship and networking groups in Northern England and holds the position of vice president at the gaming charity SpecialEffect.

Expressing his gratitude, Cavers told GamesIndustry.biz, "I'm humbled to have been recognized in the Kings New Year Honours list with an OBE."

He added, "2025 marks my 30th year in the video games industry and 22 years since co-founding Sumo Digital alongside Paul, Darren and James. The sector has changed a lot over the last three decades but the passion, enthusiasm and creativity it exudes has not waned and despite some challenging times it continues to mature into a global phenomenon. There are lots people I want to thank, too many to list here, however it is the people in our industry who make it great and to stand alongside them and be recognised for making a contribution really is an honour in itself.”