Jason Kingsley History Maker

Meet the Uk Gaming Industry’s Knight in Shining Armor: Rebellion’s Ceo Jason Kingsley on Running Your Own Studio, Lootboxes and the Future 
 

- Daniella Lucas

The gaming industry has felt a little shaky recently, what with lootbox controversies that have seriously angered gamers to the looming uncertainty of brexit and how that will effect the UK industry. there’s an air of uncertainty for devs and players alike. Thankfully, a knight has stepped forward to share his wisdom—Jason Kingsley obe and CEO of Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite and the upcoming Strange Brigade. He’s kept the studio in strong health for 25 years, and is the chairman for TIGA (the independent game Developer’s association), which lobbies on behalf of UK developers, as well as a keen historian who jousts at the weekends (yes, seriously). We talk to this industry stalwart about the state of the industry, his time with Rebellion, and what’s in store for the future.

As a developer, how do you feel about lootboxes?

Lootboxes are an interesting area of business. If we think of where it’s come from, the problem is that some of the bigger players in the industry are spending huge amounts of money on their games, and the actual price of a game in real terms has gone down—they’ve stayed at roughly £45 for as long as I can remember buying games on the Atari VCS, and they were £40 which, back in those days, is probably £150 or something equivalent now. The number has stayed roughly the same, but the value to everybody has decreased.