From pixels to planets - the UK gaming and space sectors show how to lead on future technologies

Ahead of the game for decades

The UK’s legacy in gaming technologies can be traced back to the 1970s. This saw British engineers make huge strides in the development of early electronic computers and the software they ran. Such software often took the form of games such as MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), a text-based adventure built by two Essex University students that’s now recognised as the world’s first computerised role-playing game.

The UK was quick to capitalise upon this early lead. The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise, created by a small Dundee-based studio in 1997, has produced GTA 5, the second-best-selling video game of all time, while RuneScape, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game launched in 2001, boasted over 50 million players at its peak. This success saw the UK’s games market hold the title of largest entertainment sector for 11 years in a row until it was dethroned by video in 2023.

“Underpinning the UK’s gaming and space sectors are strong foundations centuries in the making - a rich history of discovery and experimentation in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, creativity, and the arts”

Rory Daniels, TechUK

The UK’s technological achievements in space are equally impressive. These include the deployment of Ariel-1, one of the world’s first scientific satellites, in 1962 and the successful launch of the Black Arrow rocket in 1972. Today, the UK’s space sector generates £18.9bn and employs 52,000 people.

Key strengths include world-class financial and legal services, a track record of international collaboration, and deep expertise in manufacturing, particularly of satellites and spacecraft. For example, 2028 will see the Rosalind Franklin rover - developed by Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage - travel to Mars as part of a major international mission.

Lessons to be learned

There are several factors that explain why the UK’s gaming and space sectors have enjoyed decades of success. Only by understanding these can we harness them to advance the development and application of future technologies in other sectors of strategic importance to the UK.

Not doing so would represent a significant missed opportunity to further the UK’s geopolitical objectives and drive improvements in living standards, productivity, and economic growth.

Lesson 1: Leverage your legacy

The UK must take advantage of its lead in the sectors of today if it is to build the sectors of the future.

This means systematically identifying which skillsets should be safeguarded and which should be upgraded, shouting about current strengths to ensure the government and investors don’t let them slip away, and being willing to fundamentally disrupt how domestic sectors operate before other countries do so on their own terms.

For example, TechUK’s Emerging space tech report calls for non-space companies to shape the government’s upcoming Space Workforce Action Plan. This should help ensure the space sector of the future is equipped with expertise in technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing - many of which will become increasingly integral to deriving maximum value from space exploration, systems, and services.

These actions go well beyond the identification of priority technologies or allocation of funding. To be successful, they will require honesty, introspection, long-term commitments, and difficult decisions.

Lesson 2: Play to your strengths

UK leadership in these sectors hasn’t emerged by accident or chance. Underpinning the UK’s gaming and space sectors are strong foundations centuries in the making - a rich history of discovery and experimentation in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, creativity, and the arts.

On the back of the Autumn Budget, the task for policymakers will be to ensure the UK’s limited public finances go as far as possible. This will mean backing and building upon the disciplines, technologies, and sectors in which the UK traditionally excels.

While gaming and space are two examples of such areas, there will be many others. Take the metaverse, a collection of virtual worlds in which users can interact and consume online content, usually through digital representations of themselves, or avatars.

Such immersive experiences – which in many ways are being pioneered by UK companies such as Improbable - will depend upon the creation of compelling, technologically sophisticated virtual environments that leverage the UK’s artists and graphic designers just as much as its data engineers and computer scientists.

Lesson 3: Today’s winners are tomorrow’s losers

Even within sectors such as gaming and space, resources must be directed towards areas with the most potential for high growth if the UK is to capture a significant share of the future market.

Examples include Web3 gaming - in which communities of gamers are increasingly leveraging technology to make decisions once reserved for the game developer - and in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, as the space economy becomes less about using rockets to place satellites in orbit and more about what happens once they’re there.

Backing tomorrow’s winners will be easier said than done. After all, it can often feel counterintuitive to decrease investment in technologies or approaches that have previously led to success and prosperity. However, much like with lesson one above, future leadership will be built upon honesty, introspection, and difficult decisions.

That’s not to say that there aren’t also some quick wins. One could be to map the five critical technologies set out in 2023’s UK Science and Technology Framework onto high-potential sectors such as gaming and space.

This would enable government departments and agencies to better target expertise and funding while signalling its long-term intentions to entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and the wider tech ecosystem.

The inclusion of advanced manufacturing, creative industries, and digital and technologies as key growth sectors in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy is a positive step towards UK leadership in the high-growth sectors of the future.

It’s time to act

The UK cannot take its past leadership in sectors such as gaming and space for granted.

Only by leveraging its legacy of innovation in particular sectors, playing to its strengths in fields such as science and the arts, and shifting attention and resources towards the technologies poised to transform current areas of leadership can the UK create the Grand Theft Auto or Black Arrow rocket of tomorrow.

Anything less than this would represent a significant missed opportunity to further the UK’s geopolitical objectives and drive improvements in living standards, productivity, and economic growth.

Rory Daniels is senior programme manager for emerging technologies at TechUK.