How Guildford became the Hollywood of Games

Fuelling Growth in the game industry

Throughout this period, academics at the University of Surrey’s CVVSP had created many effective partnerships and collaborative initiatives with industry partners within the region. Links with two creatives, Neil Jonson and Ben Ward, resulted in the formation in 2016 of Rocketdesk in Surrey Research Park, a co-working space for start-up creative technology companies. In addition, planning permission was granted for the creation of a 5G linked Virtual Reality suite on Nugent Road. This dynamic environment for likeminded individuals encouraged further growth and collaborations with up to 50 young games companies across a wide range of areas including games creation, app development and Virtual Reality (VR) solutions – all of which are now present on the Park.

As we approach the 30th year since we welcomed our first Guildford Gaming tenant, we are proud to take a moment to reflect and celebrate a sector that has since grown to be worth £90 million in the UK in 2019/20. Underpinned by an established and highly esteemed local network of industry and academia, it has achieved over £1 billion of international foreign direct investment and continues to grow and innovate at an incredible pace.