Speaking in Belfast after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen"s University for his pioneering work in the industry, the Shiny Entertainment founder said he wants to see western companies following in the footsteps of Asian firms by releasing their games for free, according to the BBC.

"The next big thing will be free games," Perry said, adding that the model was already being used successfully in Asia.

"They had so much piracy that they decided to stop charging for the games. Instead, there"ll be a charge for things you might want to use in the game.

"Your character might have a plain white T-shirt. If you wanted a nicer one you could have it for a dollar. Or perhaps you could buy a magic sword for a knight for a dollar.

"It"s going to turn our industry on its head and I want to see the same thing happening in the USA and Europe."

Later this year EA will release Battlefield Heroes under its new ‘Play 4 Free’ model. The title will be freely downloadable upon release and generate revenue from advertising and micropayments. Another upcoming free-to-play title is id Software’s Quake Live, which will be fully-funded by in-game advertising.

According to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, software piracy costs the UK industry over £2bn every year.