One in five UK developers based in the South East

A new TIGA study shows that the South East of England is home to the biggest proportion of the UK’s games developers.

According to the trade body, the South East employed 2,574 development staff in the year ending March 2016. The region accounted for 20.5 per cent of the UK’s development workforce.

By contrast, London only made up 19.3 per cent and is home to 2,418 staff/ But more games companies – 222, in fact – are based in the capital.

This is no doubt due to the South East being home to some of the largest studios in the UK, such as Creative Assembly, Supermassive Games, Criterion and so on.

“The South East has surpassed London as the largest centre of games development in the UK,” said TIGA CEO Dr Richard Wilson. “The South East benefits from a number of important games clusters, including Oxford, Brighton and Portsmouth. Excellent universities provide these clusters with first rate graduates.

“London remains a games development powerhouse. The capital is home to 222 games companies, including King, Sony and Space Ape Games and has good access to highly skilled developers from terrific universities and a number of finance providers.”