Creative Industries

Coventry & Warwickshire has a vibrant creative and digital sector employing some of the UK’s most creative minds with strengths in design, software consulting, games development, digital marketing, Virtual and Augmented Reality, film-making and theatre.

Recognised globally, Coventry & Warwickshire is home to the largest video game development cluster outside of Greater London, producing some of the best know IP in the world. Dubbed locally as Silicon Spa, it employs over 3000 people, predominately anchored around the town of Royal Leamington Spa with over 50 studios at its core and unprecedented growth.

Creative sector businesses

Game development studios

Game development employees

IN GOOD COMPANY - THE KEY PLAYERS

Brands

Home to DCA Design, IBM, Kantar, Ragdoll Productions, Royal Shakespeare Company, PCMS, SEGA Hardlight, Ubisoft, Codemasters, Playground Games

Silicon Spa

Globally significant cluster of video game developers known as ‘Silicon Spa’ in Warwick, Leamington Spa and Southam.

Talent

Silicon Spa has over 50 studios, employing over 3500 directly and making up 15% of the UK games industry with business incubator space for start-up and micro game development companies.

technology

Leading area in the application of gaming technology for business and educational applications, with organisations including CUE Interactive, InMotion Jaguar Land Rover, Imagination and Totem Learning.

Film & TV Production Expertise

Sky Blue Studios is an innovative and sustainability-first media and studio facility in Coventry, focused on the film, TV and immersive media production sector. Providing 550,000 sq ft of studio, and production space.

R&D

The Centre for Sustainable Production provides a showcase and R&D facility to promote, test, develop and experience products and services with C2C® (Cradle to Cradle Certified®), low carbon and/or circular economy credentials that support media and event production

Creative Industries contribute over £1bn in GVA to the local economy

15% of the UK’s games development industry employed here

A blueprint for growth

Sector ecosystem

Games. Culture. Creativity – The three words that define Interactive Futures. Whether you already work in the video games industry, work in an associated creative field, perhaps you want to start a new career, or, quite simply, you just love playing games – there is something for you at this annual conference in Silicon Spa

interactive-futures.com

Our shows begin life in our Stratford workshops and theatres, where we design and build the sets, costumes and props, and rehearse and perform the plays in our three theatres: the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan Theatre and the Studio Theatre at The Other Place.

rsc.org.uk

To stimulate and accelerate connections between the university and the region’s creative businesses, the University of Warwick established the Creative & Digital Communities initiative led by industry professionals.

We Inspire, Educate & Incubate on and off campus offering space, business support, mentoring and networking to support growth, creative ideas, enterprises and innovation.

Sky Blue Studios is an innovative and sustainability-first media and studio facility focused on the film, TV and immersive media production sector. This unique building offers 550,000 sq ft across 6 floors of studio, location and production space.

The concept is simple – a central home for sustainable production that provides a centre of creativity and innovation in one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, creative content production.

Institute of Coding, Coventry University - an OfS initiative, made up of 25 HEI partners and over 60 industry partners to develop the next generation of digital talent at degree level and above.

coventry.ac.uk/institute-of-coding

Coventry University - known for its expertise in design, health and digital media and home to facilities such as the Techno Centre, the National Transport Design Centre, Disruptive Media Learning Lab, and the £55m Engineering & Computing Building.

coventry.ac.uk

Vibrant collaboration between local businesses, world-class academics and researchers, close to world-class engineering R&D facilities including the Serious Games Institute (SGI) at Coventry University; the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) at Ansty and WMG’s multi-disciplinary research at the University of Warwick.

the-mtc.org

Cue Interactive is a digital studio based in Coventry and is part of the local university. The studio are experts in developing large scale immersive simulations, 3D visualisations using virtual and augmented reality, and gamification applications. This enables their clients to better engage, train and/or support their staff and customers.

cueinteractive.co.uk

Unique commercial space dedicated to the sector including Creative Arches, 26HT, FarGo and Spencers Yard.

fargovillage.co.uk

Department of Computer Science at University of Warwick - renowned for investment in research and development facilities such as the International institute for Product and Service Innovation (IIPSI).

Key development sites

Creative Quarter Leamington Spa

Inside The Fold in Leamington Spa a coworking space for creatives and freelancers

City Centre Cultural Gateway

“In looking for a new location for our newest UK development studio, Hardlight, Leamington Spa (Warwickshire) was our first choice. There is a vibrant and active video games development community here, which is a good environment for current and future staff to be creative in, plus there are great transport links for both national and international visits, and space is cost effective with local amenities within easy access.”

SEGA

CTO

“Leamington Spa is recognised within our industry as a centre of excellence for games development, with studios of varying sizes all enjoying the large number of talented developers that live in the region. Sumo Digital has two studios in the town, with Sumo Leamington and Lab42 both making great games that play on a global stage, thanks to the incredible talent of both teams. We’re very proud to be part of the tech and creative community within the region.”

Gary Dunn, Sumo Digital

Managing Director

Ragdoll Productions has been based in Stratford upon Avon for over 20 years. Steeped in culture and with historical buildings and surrounded by beautiful countryside, we have enjoyed filming at a diverse variety of locations in the area. Also, with easy access to good motorway links to major cities, Warwickshire has proved an excellent base for Ragdoll.

Ragdoll Productions

IN GOOD COMPANY - THE KEY PLAYERS

Creative Industries contribute over £1bn in GVA to the local economy

15% of the UK’s games development industry employed here

Sector ecosystem

Key development sites

Creative Quarter Leamington Spa

City Centre Cultural Gateway

Be part of the UK's Fastest Growing Economy