The growth of the video game industry in Wales

Wales may now be an established name within the world of film and television production, with numerous high-profile projects being shot here during the last decade, but there’s another creative industry the country has been steadily working on levelling up: Games.

Wales has fostered a strong sector based around the production of video games, a $250 billion industry with over three billion consumers around the world.

Both large-scale and independent studios have sprung up around the country, producing an eclectic variety of successful titles that have bolstered Wales’ ambition of becoming a major player in this exciting global market.

According to a study conducted by the University of South Wales, there are now over 100 video game companies operating in Wales, with approximately half having opened in the last ten years. These companies range from studios producing cutting-edge games for both conventional consoles and mobile phones, and more specialised outfits, focused on things like graphic design and virtual reality (VR) technology.

One company that has made headlines in recent years is Wales Interactive, based in Penarth, South Wales. The studio released the game Maid of Sker in 2020, a gothic-style horror title – inspired by a tragic Welsh folk story – that attracted over one million players, and also took home a prize at the TIGA Games Industry Awards 2020. The studio released an equally successful sequel, Sker Ritual, in 2022, and gained a further two nominations at the 2024 Awards.

Another noteworthy Welsh anchor company is Rocket Science Group, a US based co-development group, who opened their European headquarters in Cardiff in 2023, generating significant digital job opportunities within the Welsh capital. The company, which also has studios in New York and Austin, Texas, is the parent organisation of three individual studios that serve studios and publishers in niche areas like multiplayer engineering, UX design, optimisation and porting. Leadership at Rocket Science hail from industry giants including Unity, Epic Games and PUBG. Their enormous presence in the industry, and impressive contacts, has also been beneficial to smaller, indie companies, like COPA Gaming in Penarth.

Of course, any burgeoning industry requires a talented workforce to support it, and Wales is working hard to create pathways to help those with hopes of working in the video game industry realise these ambitions.

One such example is The Games Developer Foundry Wales initiative funded through the Creative Skills Fund, which offers multi-week, boot camp-style courses in key disciplines like coding and self-publishing on digital platforms. Media Academy Wales received funding to launch Gêm: a gaming hub that supports the strategic development of training provisions that covers entry-level requirements at levels 1, 2 and 3 on a BTEC framework. The goal of this project is to develop a creative workforce that is representative of all communities across Wales.

Younger aspiring digital creators, meanwhile, can cut their teeth in the world of game design – with hands-on experience in the latest modern tools, like Unreal Engine – at two Welsh universities, with both the University of Trinity St Davids, via its Swansea campus, and the Atrium at the University of South Wales, based in Cardiff, offering undergraduate courses in Computer Games Design. It was from the latter course that one of the co-founders of Wales Interactive, the studio behind the Sker games, graduated.

The Welsh Government is taking an active role in boosting the Welsh games industry through its dedicated economic development agency, Creative Wales, who offer Production Funding a scheme that supports Wales-based production, games and animation development companies who are looking to develop productions intended for international audiences.

However, it’s not just financial support that’s available to gaming businesses in Wales. The Welsh Government also acts to amplify the work of Welsh studios around the world, notably offering Welsh games companies the opportunity to join the Cymru Wales stand as part of the sector trade mission to to Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California. The event is the largest, most prestigious gaming conference in the world, and has led to major new business inroads for Welsh companies, through connecting with one another and meeting some of the biggest companies in the world in one place.

When assessing the current state of play, it's clear the Welsh games industry has come a long way in a relatively short period of time, with further growth forecasted. In other words, we’re a long way from game over.