The gaming industry is a huge boon to the UK, both creatively and economically. The sector is worth £4.193 billion to the country based on 2015 figures, and continues to grow.
In fact, it's expanding at such a pace - 66 per cent of the 1,949 games companies operating in the UK only registered as businesses in the last six years - that it's becoming hard to track its growth.
Enter the UK Games Map. The new service is a collaboration between games industry trade body Ukie and innovation foundation Nesta, and designed to show the scope and importance of the UK games sector.
Gamesmap builds on the 2014 Nesta and Ukie report A Map of the UK Games Industry. The platform will use web-scraping to automatically populate the map with businesses - including games developers, publishers, service companies and educational establishments - and visualising the industry's reach.
One of the benefits of such an approach is it highlights where business is already happening, and where the sector needs support and investment. For instance, the above map shows the concentration of developers, publishers, universities with games-relevant courses, and service providers around London. Users will also be able to search the map by county.
Users can browse the map with a simple drag interface, scrolling in and out of regions to explore businesses or institutions in a given area. Alternatively, you can filter the map by sector, activity, platforms developed for, courses offered by universities, or service specialisations. Click on a business, and Gamesmap will provide any publicly available information, including website address and social media links.
Based on the data currently available, Gamesmap has already brought to light one problem facing the industry - only 41 per cent of interactive entertainment companies are registered using the correct Standard Industrial Classification codes. This is important, as these figures are used in official government statistics to analyse and describe the size and scale of industries. With less than half of the UK's games businesses correctly classified, it means the sector is underrepresented in national and international figures.
Along with launching Gamesmap, Ukie has called for games companies to check what SIC code their business is listed under. Games Developers should be listed as 62.01/1 and Publishers as 58.21.
"We know that the UK's games and interactive entertainment sector is a huge global success story. The UK Games Map will be an invaluable visual tool and data source for the sector, and owned by the sector," said Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie.
"We can use it as a baseline to track our economic success and reach, as well as analyse other datasets, such as headcount or exports, to spot emerging and important patterns, trends, and opportunities. We encourage all companies to register in order to check their data, as well as add what they like to enhance the map. This is an important tool and we expect it to grow and iterate as people use it."
"Fast-growing industries like video games are hard to track using traditional data techniques. Yet, businesses, investors and policymakers need timely and fine-grained data to make the right decisions," added Hasan Bakhshi, senior director of digital and creative economy at Nesta.
"We have built the UK Games Map with Ukie to meet this need in the games sector and Nesta is committed to further developing data techniques that are fit for purpose in measuring innovative industries."
Another benefit to the map will be serving as a promotional tool for local or regional networking. Nesta and Ukie hope it will help encourage sharing of skills, connect talented creators with each other, link businesses to service providers.
It could also highlight key business clusters to investors. Areas outside of London, such as Leamington Spa, are rapidly becoming hubs for the UK's development sector, and the Gamesmap could help make that more visible. It should also serve as a detailed record of the sector, useful for academics, media, and other organisations researching the industry.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
