Ambitious plans to host a Brighton Games Festival

A Brighton Games Festival could be hosted by the dozens of digital games companies based in Sussex.
The developer behind The Edward Street Quarter hopes to put Brighton Area Games Cluster on the mapThe developer behind The Edward Street Quarter hopes to put Brighton Area Games Cluster on the map
The developer behind The Edward Street Quarter hopes to put Brighton Area Games Cluster on the map

A Brighton Games Festival could be hosted by the dozens of digital games companies based in Sussex.

The aim of the event would be to raise the profile of the area’s games businesses and attract new talent.

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It was put forward following a report created by Wired Sussex, which supports the digital, media and technology sector, and property developer First Base, which is behind the construction of Edward Street Quarter housing development.

David Amor, Non-Executive Director, Wired Sussex and former Chief Business Development Officer at games studio MAG Interactive said: “With a total of 76 games companies in Sussex, this puts the cluster in a great position to attract talent, giving employees plenty of career prospects, but without the need to uproot to a new city for work when they want to progress. This is a major strength.

“We need to do more to put our cluster on the map and boost awareness of the many opportunities in the city, regionally, nationally and internationally, so that our cluster has the same recognition as other hubs around the UK. Our studios are highly collaborative and together we have already brainstormed ideas about how we can continue to help the sector to thrive.”

Olaide Oboh, Director of Partnerships at First Base: “It’s exciting to see plans discussed about how we can build awareness of the Brighton Area Games Cluster and look at how we can help to bring the studios together to achieve this.

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“There will be space at Edward Street Quarter when completed where games companies will be able to get together and collaborate. We look forward to welcoming them to Brighton’s newest neighbourhood and hope it sparks more ideas about how we can put the Brighton Area Games Cluster on the map.”

The Sussex Games Cluster Report identified that Sussex generates more than £200m in economic value for the region annually and is set to grow to a quarter of a billion in 2021.

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