6. Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb

Related

Regular podcasts, news about Live, frequent updates and occasional comments with an inherent pro-Microsoft bias - it's got to be Microsoft's Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb. We know he's genuine because he's got a Gamerscore of almost 40k, even if that is a bit weak compared to the likes of our very own Jennifer Allen (who will have undoubtedly broken the 100k barrier by the time anyone reads this). Hryb's biggest charm, however, is that nobody would ever dream of attacking his credibility as an enthusiastic gamer. His friendly demure is just one of the reasons manages to trump the year after year, which makes him pretty important in our books.

5. Robert Bowling

Whenever there was a fricassee of community tension regarding 2, Robert Bowling was there to set things right. He was also on hand to continually whet the appetites of his plethora of adoring followers, routinely provide sneak peeks at MW2's cheeky new features and dish out meaty quotes for overworked journalists on slow news days. Functioning as the chief professional mouthpiece for the biggest commercial videogame of all time probably helped him in his quest to frequently grab column inches, but the man's inimitable talents at manipulating popular social networking tools are second only to Microsoft's Major Nelson. He'd have got bonus points if he could have told us how come the blatantly overpowered (but now patched) 1887's weren't spotted during beta testing.

4.

Steam has become the de facto destination for gamers: the only boxed PC games I've purchased this year are ones that incorporate themselves into the world's favourite games distribution platform. In 2003, when the service was in beta, there was plenty of scepticism (of which I was one) as to the longevity of the system. But I clearly couldn't have been more wrong, and at time of writing my catalogue contains 115 titles. While never release figures, Steam's importance to PC gaming is undeniable. But Gabe has also spent 2009 overseeing the launch of the magnificent 2, which continually sucks up considerable chunks of free time. We love you Gabe, and if you release Episode 3 in 2010 we can promise that you'll be number one on our list next year (ermm - Ed).

3. John Riccitiello

John Riccitello has, by and large, managed to craft himself, and the new-look EA, into what is seen as the antithesis of the old empire. 2008's gamble on new franchises might not have been the rip-roaring success that he (and us) might have hoped, but that hasn't stopped the company from continuing to invest in software - though most of their big titles poised for this year have slipped into early 2010. The company's finances also seem to be slipping, with the posting of a billion dollar loss in May and, more recently, the canning of 1500 staff. Riccitello himself is no stranger to publicity, and frequently makes headlines by unabashedly chiming his two cents worth of opinions on rival studios, upcoming and general trends.

2. Michael Pachter

Come rain or shine, celebrated industry analyst will make sure that there's something for punters to read on even the slowest of news weeks. He often speaks with candour, which forced him into a public apology earlier in the year for accusing of "ripping off" the consumer with the Go. The man is a veritable gaming Nostradamus, and his (so-so, admittedly) predictions give him enough credence with gamers that he was even celebrated earlier in the year with the ultimate achievement of the Web 2.0 generation: a Twitter hash tag. Our personal favourite was user @darabidduckie's gem exclaiming that "you cannot stick Pachter in 3. Attempting to do so will cause your own plasma grenade to bounce back and stick to you." True, that.

1. Bobby Kotick

Bobby 'Darth' Kotick seats himself, presumably, on a money throne. In an ivory tower. He doesn't play Blizzard's games because he's too busy earning enough money to open a theme park on Jupiter. One of his more controversial statements this year was when he expressed his intent to take the fun out of videogame design, leading consumers to worry about a gulf between Activision's CEO and his primary consumers. Kotick's goal is to monetise as much of gaming as possible, largely by releasing big sequels instead of gambling on the creation of new properties, so the commercial troubles of and Tony Hawk: RIDE (both new iterations in established franchises) probably won't help change his mind. Like him or loathe him, as the CEO of the world's most lucrative publisher he's undeniably an important force in the industry. And let's not forget that, in plenty of instances, his maxim has been nothing but a complete success. We also bet he is a hoot at parties.

By Martin Gaston