A history of Silicon Spa, and the wider UK games industry

According to the UKIE (the association for UK Interactive Entertainment), approximately 31.6 million people in the UK play games and UK consumers spent £4.33bn on games in 2016 (a 1.2% increase on 2015).

UKIE value the global games industry at $99.6bn and growth estimates predict a market worth $118.6bn by 2019.

Wright Hassall is privileged to sit at the heart of “Silicon Spa”. Leamington Spa is a thriving hub for game developers, sitting behind only London and Dundee (birthplace for Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto). Leamington Spa is described by UKIE as an “established mecca of video games production” and, in 2015, Warwickshire accounted for 10% of the UK’s total gaming employment.

We embarked on a project to discover where this booming industry came from and the part that Leamington Spa has played in this truly global industry.

^{1 _{https://tiga.org/about-tiga-and-our-industry}}

^{2 _{http://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/33343/kwalees-david-darling-on-the-new-challenge-of-making-games-and-apps-for-ios/}}

^{3 _{http://www.cwlep.com/sites/default/files/cwlep_growth_deal_3_bid.pdf}}