The Games Map is an interactive tool that shows the locations of games companies, games service providers and academic institutions providing games related courses in the UK.

How do I use the UK Games Map?

Map visualisations 

In addition to the map’s normal view, you can also view it as a heatmap and as a choropleth. The toggles for these view modes are available in the bottom left corner of the map. 

The heatmap shows the density of companies through the intensity of colour shown on the map. It responds to all levels of filtering on the map. 

The choropleth shows the total number of companies using both colour and the height of region-shaped polygons. It is available only when a “Boundary Group” has been selected and cannot be limited to individual boundaries but does respond to all other filters. Choropleths are more easily seen when the map is viewed from a perspective other than top-down. To change the camera angle of the map view, right-click and drag. 


Filters 

You can explore different aspects of the UK industry by applying different filters to the map. It’s even possible to look at how the industry looked at different periods of time! After you’ve applied the filters you’re interested in, you can view all of the companies that satisfy these filters as a list by clicking “list view” in the top left corner of the map. Furthermore, you can export this list as a CSV by clicking the “Export n organisations” button at the top of the list. Exporting as CSV requires the creation of a UK Games Map user account. 


Suggesting Edits and Additions to the Map 

When browsing an organisation page on the map, you can suggest edits to the page, if for example any of the information (such as the company address) is incomplete or out-of-date. To do this, simply click the “suggest an edit” button in the left-hand toolbar. You can also use this function to let us know if a particular organisation should not be on the map. 

You can add new organisations to the map using the “add a new organisation” button. This can always be found at the bottom of the lefthand toolbar and at the bottom of any filtered list. You’ll be taken to the add an organisation page and prompted to search by company number or name. 

Claiming an organisation and editing organisation pages directly 

If you are the owner of a business on the map or manage that business’s public profile, you can apply to edit and maintain the page directly. You can add richer information like company headcount, a logo or a company description. To claim an organisation, you need to navigate to that organisation’s page on the UK Games Map and click “Claim this organisation” in the lefthand toolbar. You’ll then need to provide us with some information to help us verify your connection to the organisation. You’re guided through this in a dialogue within the toolbar. Steps you’ll need to take: 

After this process is complete, you can click “OK” to submit your claim. You’ll receive an email letting you know the outcome within 2-3 business days. 

Once you have been approved as a verified editor, you’ll now see an “Edit page” button in the top right corner of the organisation page. Clicking this will bring you into a view where you can edit each element of the page individually. 

Updating your organisation’s position on the map 

After being verified as an editor, enter Edit Mode on your organisation’s page and follow these steps. 


How does the UK Games Map work?

The new UK Games Map works automatically with the Companies House database, to ensure that closed businesses are no longer displayed, and company locations are current. Organisations are at first identified by their standard industrial classification (SIC) code, which gave a list of over 15,000 companies. After this, a machine learning approach was used to identify the genuine games companies within this list, resulting in the database the map uses today.