How London is setting the gaming world alight

Stull think gaming is a culturally worthless pastime? Think again, says Vicky Jessop in the UK, it brings in more revenue than both music and film, and the capital’s at the heart of the creativity

OVER the next fortnight, London will be the centre of the gaming world. Some 100,000 visitors and 400 developers will attend the London Games Festival to experience the most exciting new releases, meet investors who might just fund their great ideas and find the next big thing.

"All of them are here to see why London has become Europe's biggest hub for games, and how we're on track to become the games capital of the world," says Michael French, the festival's director.

For a global powerhouse of a city, gaming (which encompasses both consoles and mobile gaming) always used to be a surprising blindspot in our cultural scene. But all that is changing, as will be demonstrated at the festival, which is backed by the Mayor's Office.

"London always had a generally good local games scene but in the last decade it has doubled in size," adds French. "No other global hub seems to have embraced games the way London has." That goes both for the number of studios creating them to the way the capital has influenced massive titles like Call of Duty to Assassin's Creed. From developers, to players, from exhibitions like the Barbican's Game On to the gaming bars that are springing up everywhere, London is embracing video games like never before.

Gone are the days where the industry was dismissed as the culturally worthless pursuit of teenage boys. In the UK, gaming brings in more revenue than both music and film - the industry is worth around £7 billion each year, according to trade body UK Interactive Entertainment. "There aren't that many industries that the UK can genuinely say 'we're towards the top of the pile here," says Daniel Gray, chief creative officer at London-based studio us two.