GAME ON: LONDON FOR INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT GAME ON: LONDON FOR INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT About Welcome London & Partners to London London & Partners is the official London & Partners can help you: No city meets the needs of ambitious In this guide, you’ll find out why London promotional company for London. Create a powerful business case games companies better than London. is one of the world’s top destinations for We promote London and attract for expanding to London Countless times, the UK capital has interactive entertainment companies, an businesses, events, congresses, Find the best location generated multi-million-pound success overview of London’s games community, students and visitors to the capital. Recruit the best people stories and globe-spanning brands. and insights from those who have made Create the perfect office it in London. We are the experts on doing business As London’s official promotional Build a network of partners in London; helping overseas businesses company, we are dedicated to We look forward welcoming you to this Enjoy London life to set up, and grow. helping companies like yours realise remarkable city. their global ambitions. Contact us to connect with our [email protected] team and find out how our experts +44 (0)207 234 5800 can help you. www.invest.london THE UK VIDEO GAMES Industry champions London supports growing companies INDUSTRY IS THE through initiatives such as the ELITE LARGEST IN EUROPE accelerator programme. Organisations TIGA, 2014 such IC tomorrow, Ukie and TIGA advise and promote games companies nationally and internationally. 04–0404–05 GAME ON: LONDON FOR INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT Why expand to London? We are seeing some of the world’s fastest growing games businesses choosing London. It is a great place to do business, and with the introduction of the new UK games tax relief and computing on the school 01No. 1 city for expanding 04Low-cost, speedy set-up. national curriculum, investment is in place for international games Set up a business here for accelerated future growth of the industry companies ahead of Montreal, £68.733 and register a company 1 4 Ian Livingstone CBE, Government Creative Industries San Francisco and Singapore in just 24 hours Champion and Ukie Vice Chair 02Most desirable city for 05City of opportunity: London 06Global connections. professionals world-wide2 is the world’s leading city for Fly to over 300 destinations economic clout, technology from five airports readiness and reputation as a gateway to the globe5 03Government support 07Speak to the world. 08Leading HQ hub. London with dedicated video games London office hours overlap is the world’s number one city tax relief and other initiatives with countries that collectively for international headquarters.6 supporting creative companies account for 99% of the Games companies based here world’s GDP include Nintendo, Mind Candy and Capcom 1. fDi Benchmark, Financial Times Limited, 2014 3. fDi Benchmark, Financial Times Limited, 2014 5. Cities of Opportunity, PWC, 2014 2. Decoding Global Talent, Boston Consulting Group, 2014 4. The UK – number one for European headquarters, 6. The World’s Most Competitive Cities, Site Selection & IBM, 2013 UK Trade & Investment, 2013 06–07 GAME ON: LONDON FOR INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT WHY LONDON? A large and A magnet for talent profitable market and collaboration London dominates Europe’s video games and console market, and is As a leading city for developers and global publishers, London offers now breaking new ground in global multi-player games, eSport, virtual an unbeatable mix of abundant workforce, innovative start-ups and reality and simulations. established global players. Beyond a vast player population – two Steep growth. UK video games Everything an international games in every three Brits are gamers – is a sales rose to close to £3.5bn in 2013, company needs to grow is here: global consumer base, hungry for the up 17% on 2012.7 talent, venture capital, co-working next installment of London innovation Large market. The UK video games space, government support, seed and creativity. industry is the largest in Europe.8 funding and events. Download dividends. The potential Recent successes include Mind Candy’s Flexible labour laws mean companies profit on each download in the Moshi Monsters, one of the world’s most can scale up or down quickly, and UK is the highest in western popular games generating $250m in a thriving community of freelancers Europe at $0.47.9 gross sales revenue, the global expansion provides quick access to niche skills. High-spending audience. Some of educational game developer Night 62% of UK gamers spend money on Interactive entertainment companies can Zookeeper, and the 2014 sale of artificial games, the third highest in the world access all the partners they need in one intelligence company DeepMind to behind Germany and China.10 city, forging relationships with government, Google for $500m. film and VFX, media, advertising, technology, finance and legal experts. Talent hub. London’s creative 11 Anatomy of a gamer This unique ecosystem is enabling games industries employed 518,000 people There are 34.7m gamers aged 8–74 in companies to innovate and break ground in 2013.13 Great Britain. A typical player: in new industries like film and education. Developer base. London is home to the largest concentration of Plays games 14 hours a week Meanwhile, London’s international developers/publishers in the UK with Prefers apps (55% of gamers) population – the city speaks 83 studios in London in 2013.14 52% male and 48% female 233 languages12 – makes it a top Top universities. London has six Owns a computer (96%), choice for expanding companies keen of the world’s most prestigious smartphone (78%), tablet (61%), to explore and conquer new markets. console (58%) and handheld institutions in the top 100, device (36%). more than any other city. 7. UK Games Industry Fact Sheet, Ukie, 2014 10. Global Games Market Report, Newzoo, 2014 12. Language Capital: mapping the languages of London’s 14. fDi Benchmark, a service from the Financial Times Limited 8. TIGA tiga.org/about-us-and-uk-games/uk-videogames-industry 11. Gaming Revolution, IAB UK, 2014 schoolchildren, Eversley et al, CILT, 2011 2014, fDi Intelligence based on gamedevmap, 2013 9. UK Games Industry Fact Sheet, Ukie, 2014 13. Creative Industries: Focus on Employment, Department for Culture Media & Sport, 2014 08–09 GAME ON: LONDON FOR INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT WHY LONDON? London is the best place to Companies in London also enjoy the third Video games tax relief. Up to start up: all around us are people, lowest tax rate in Europe, and entrepreneurs 25% of the cost of games Best for companies and events that can benefit from capital gains tax breaks on development can be claimed. make us feel at ease and expand their first £10m, together with start-up loan Set up faster, for less. On average, it schemes and tax favourable share options takes just 13 days to set up a business business our horizons. It’s also a very for employees. in London.15 Co-working space is multicultural city. We have a team available from just £10 plus VAT a day.16 Bringing your talent to London is easy The UK Government is firmly to reflect different cultures so we Lower taxes. Reduced to 20% too, with a range of visas for digital behind the games industry, can create products that succeed on April 2015, below tax rates in technology and arts specialists. introducing a new video games in multiple territories Germany and the US. tax relief in 2014 with the effect of Henrique Olifiers, Co-Founder, For early-stage companies, the R&D tax credits. Companies with reducing the cost of development Bossa Studios Government’s Seed Enterprise Investment fewer than 500 employees benefit Scheme (SEIS) provides 50% tax relief activity by up to 25%. from a 225% rate. of the cost of the shares, on a maximum Entrepreneur relief. This cuts annual investment of £100,000. capital gains tax on the disposal of qualifying business assets.17 15. The UK – number one for European headquarters, 17. Allows investors to realise more capital on their investment in UK Trade & Investment, 2013 start-ups and small companies. The size of Entrepreneurs’ Relief 16. www.gocowo.com has been doubled from £5m to £10m, giving business owners a special Capital Gains tax rate of 10% on their first £10m. 10 – 11 GAME ON: LONDON FOR INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT 53 43 52 42 54 49 50 48 06 A snapshot of games 51 44 Hackney 47 19 29 45 22 studios and publishers 21 46 86 27 28 35 Hoxton across London 14 36 37 34 20 10 Kings Cross 17 16 30 40 07 11 31 39 18 12 33 51 85 87 13 32 09 88 26 38 05 08 90 24 25 78 89 41 82 04 79 71 81 76 91 15 Paddington 83 75 Covent 77 74 Garden Whitechapel Notting Hill Mayfair 80 ▲ Leicester Square Notting Hyde Park Hill Gate 73 72 55 Waterloo 56 Kensington Westminster 57 High Street Kensington 58 59 Hammersmith 68 01 70 Chelsea 65 84 66 64 69 60 61 62 01 Games Foundry 14 Pomegranate 26 Takeoff Studios 37 Bossa Studios 49 Origin8 60 Digicub 72 Inensu 83 Hotsauce Interactive 02 Two Creature Studios 15 Hide&Seek 27 Infinite State Games 38 R3D Pixel Technologies 61 Roll 7 73 Animal Vegetable 84 Yazino 03 Hotgen 16 Big Pixel Studios 28 Stick Sports 39 MakieLab 50 I Fight Bears 62 Lucky Mountain Mineral 85 Supersolid 04 PlayGen 17 PlayerThree 29 Marmalade 40 Goldhawk Interactive 51 Von Nostrum Games Games 74 Advanced Mobile 86 Bin Weevils 05 Ustwo 18 Cybersports UK Game Studio 41 Level Up Games 52 Honeyslug 63 State of Play Games