Sheffield has a long history in gaming, thanks in part to being home to the iconic Gremlin Graphics, who produced over 220 titles before being bought out it 1999. Today, its legacy lives on and is currently experiencing a renaissance, mainly due to the fact that the city is home to the UK’s National Videogame Museum and the British Gaming Institute.

Gremlin Graphics
Not to be confused with Gremlin Industries, Gremlin Graphics Software Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working primarily on 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. 

Founders Ian Stewart and Kevin Norburn initially established the company as a computer store but eventually turned it into a software house.

Gremlin developed many games such as ‘Monty Mole’, ‘Actua Soccer’ (the first fully 3D football game), and the ‘Premier Manager’ series as part of their large array of titles. In 1997 they acquired DMA Design (the creators of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Lemmings’) before being bought out themselves in 1999 by Infogrames and being renamed to ‘Infogrames Sheffield House’. They would make a few more games including Hogs of War and UEFA Challenge, before going defunct in 2003. Their assets were bought by Zoo Digital from Infogrames (now named Atari), with all Gremlin Trademarks now being owned by Warner Bros Entertainment. 

After going defunct, some of the staff (Paul Porter, Carl Carvers, Darren Mills and James North-Hearn) founded Sumo Digital.

Sumo Digital and Sumo Group
Sumo Digital was the successor to Gremlin Graphics that would eventually become a subsidiary of Sumo Group. Carl Cavers is the CEO of Sumo Group and the company has around 1,400 employees as of 2023. The Chinese conglomerate Tencent (owners of Riot Games, Epic Games, Turtle Rock Studios and Paradox Interactive as well as many others) would fully acquire the company on 17 January 2022, although their headquarters is still in Sheffield.

Sumo Digital have made many games, their first being in 2005, where they would go on to make many famous titles such as ‘Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing’ in 2010, ‘LittleBigPlanet’ in 2014 and ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ in 2023. They have also done other work, co-producing the first two ‘Hitman’ games as well as ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ and helping other studios port their games such as Starbreeze Studio’s ‘Payday 2’ onto the Nintendo Switch.

It’s clear that Sumo Digital and its parent company Sumo Group have both had a strong impact on the gaming industry, helping mould the way that new games are made, and it is unlikely that the company will be exiting the gaming industry any time soon.

Other notable gaming developers
Steel City Interactive is an ambitious, independent studio who released their game ‘Undisputed’ on 11 October 2024. It’s the first major boxing game of the decade and performed better than expected, selling over one million copies on release.

Boneloaf is an independent game studio based in Sheffield that are known for the popular party games ‘Gang Beasts’ which is a whacky beat ‘em up, which was nominated for “Excellence in multiplayer” at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards and for “Multiplayer” at the 14^th British Academy Games Awards.

National Videogame Museum
The National Videogame Museum opened in Nottingham under the name ‘National Videogame Arcade’ in 2015 and was the world’s first cultural centre directed solely at videogames. It moved to Sheffield in 2018 and has been there ever since under the name ‘National Videogame Museum’. It had its busiest year to date in 2023 with over 50,000 visitors on its fifth birthday. There are many exhibited games including Duck Hunt, Rock Band and Dancing Stage Fusion. 

In ‘The Lab’ You can try your own hand at making your own videogame, using the real game making tools that actual developers use. In ‘The Art of Play’, you can look behind the scenes at the art, creativity and people behind five UK made videogames including Monument Valley and Lumino City. There is even a ‘Made in Sheffield’ exhibit, that shines a light on Videogames made right here in the city through interactive games and unique objects.

It’s clear that in Sheffield there is a rich history of videogames that will continue through our very own developers, as well as the institutions that support them.