David Perry knows a thing or two about Computer gaming; so when he said that giving games away - and building revenue models on addons - could be the only solution to the problem of piracy, the gaming industry listens.

The Northern Irish video game developer proposal came as he received an honorary doctorate from Queen's University in Belfast and said that this business model was a success in Asia where software is offered as free and revenue comes from addons and premium services.

These are purchased through micropayments made either online or by mobile phones."Your character", he said, "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."

Counterfeiting costs the UK Gaming industry north of GBP 2 billion annually but whether the same model can be applied here remains to be seen.

After all, video calling, micropayments and mobile surfing are all part and parcel of the contemporary Asian technology landscape but failed to capture the European user's imagination.Perry's contribution to the gaming world includes classics like Earthworm Jim, MDK and Messiah.