Sumo Group CEO Carl Cavers receives OBE in New Year’s Honours list

The co-founder and CEO of Sumo Group Carl Cavers has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King’s New Year’s Honours List.

He receives the OBE for services to the video games industry.

Cavers has spent 30 years in video games, including senior roles at Gremlin and Infogrammes before setting up Sumo in 2003 alongside Paul Porter, Darren Mills and James North-Hearn.

Sumo is best known as a work-for-hire studio, and has created high profile games including Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, LittleBigPlanet 3, Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Crackdown 3. It’s also supported the development of titles including Forza Horizon 2, Hogwarts Legacy and Call of Duty Vanguard, and is increasingly developing and publishing its own projects, such as Snake Pass and Still Wakes The Deep.

Sumo is a frequent winner of the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards, particularly around its work with education and young people. In 2021, it was acquired by Tencent in a $1.27 billion deal, and despite some recent restructuring, it remains one of the largest development groups in the UK.

Outside of Sumo, Cavers is a supporter of the wider games business. He is actively involved in mentorship and networking groups in the North of England and is a vice president of games industry charity SpecialEffect.

“I’m humbled to have been recognised in the Kings New Year Honours list with an OBE,” Cavers told GamesIndustry.biz.

“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.”