Nick Poole OBE
CEO, Ukie
This November, Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI launches globally. It will almost certainly become one of the highest-grossing entertainment products ever made, but not many know it’s made in the UK.
Originating in Dundee, it is now being built in Edinburgh, Leeds and Lincoln, with help from studios across the globe.
Games are now the world’s largest entertainment sector, generating more than twice the combined revenues of film and music. In fact, UK consumers spent £8.76 billion on games in 2025, the highest figure to date.
Games have, despite their reach and popularity, historically been misread by mainstream culture, which has impacted how seriously the Government treats the sector when designing policy.
Our games are played by people around the world and are a genuine source of untapped cultural influence
Video games as a frontier industry
The Government has now named video games a “frontier industry,” backed by a £30 million Games Growth Package. We should be beating our chests about the studios, new and returning IP, talent and technological innovation that this package is supporting.
Our games are played by people around the world and are a genuine source of untapped cultural influence. This year, players everywhere will experience British IP, ideas and stories through games — and we should own that as a success. It is the result of decades spent building creative and technical talent that the rest of the world cannot replicate in quite the same way.
And it’s not just games released this year
While the vast majority of people may not have heard of studios like Hello Games, Facepunch, Jagex, Rare and Cloud Imperium, their games are reaching millions of players every day through some of the industry’s most successful live service titles that are still growing even a decade after release.
Ukie’s Made in the UK campaign exists to celebrate these stories, people and places that define UK games and the sheer richness and imagination of the worlds they build and stories they tell.
