The rise and rise of Fazeley Studios
Dr Barber pointed to the “clustering” effect which allowed digital firms to collaborate more easily and contribute to building the profile of Digbeth.
“Because of the way they work, it allows a natural clustering to happen. Because small firms work very closely together and individual projects often involve short-term working, networks between firms develop that are crucial to the economy.
“Again the Custard Factory has created that kind of ambience that firms like that want to be around.
“With buildings like Fazeley Studios, The Custard Factory, The Bond, Vivid and Ikon, by forming a cluster, they start to create a profile for these kinds of sectors and add up to more than the sum of their parts.
“They create a kind of visibility for the digital and new media sectors and that starts to benefit the city as a whole.”
The next steps for Digbeth include the opening of Devonshire House, the imposing Victorian building facing onto Digbeth High Street, a £10 million 100,000 sq ft project that has also been gap funded by Advantage West Midlands.
It’s not just Advantage West Midlands – Birmingham City Council has also recognised Digbeth as a key zone in the city’s digital and creative economy.
Earlier this year it announced plans for the area spanning Digbeth, Aston Science Park and Eastside to become Birmingham’s new “digital district,” benefiting from next-generation high speed broadband.
The initiative revolves around a project to install fibre-optic technology which would enable internet speeds of over 100 megabits per second.
But many of the companies resident in the area have raised concerns that Digbeth’s infrastructure still needs to be improved, pointing to the need for better lighting and signage.
Dr Barber said the area had succeeded “in spite of council planning rather than because of it”.
He pointed to Digbeth High Street and the connection between the Bullring and the Custard Factory as a case where further investment was needed to better integrate the two areas.
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Big computer games players in the Midlands:
* Serious Games Institute
Thanks to the Serious Games Institute based in Coventry University’s Science Park, the West Midlands has become one of the world centres for “serious games” – games used for non-entertainment purposes such as education, culture and business.
The institute provides a meeting point for high-level applied academic research and leading-edge technology companies who are pioneering the commercial use of serious games.
Tenants include a firm called Digital 2.0 which is developing a game to help young people who are at risk of offending to understand the realities of life in prison, the Virtual Experience Company, a company which can take users on an exquisitely-detailed tour of historic buildings like Anne Hathaway’s cottage, and Ambient Performance, which helps companies customise and build their own online spaces for use in things like online conferences or training programmes.
* Codemasters
One of the original names in computer gaming, Southam-based games developer and publisher Codemasters was founded by teenagers Richard and David Darling in 1986. The brothers were honoured in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Today Codemasters sells all over the world, boasting Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and online games such as The Lord of the Rings Online
Last November Codemasters took over Birmingham developers Swordfish Studios, buying the firm out from American games giant Activision Vivendi. Swordfish and Codemasters had worked on projects such as the acclaimed Brian Lara-endorsed cricket game.
Today Codemasters employs nearly 500 people in the UK.
* Blitz Games Studio
The firm has a similar history to Codemasters – emerging from the bedrooms of schoolboy coders Philip and Andrew Oliver in 1990 to become one of the largest independent video game developers in the world.
Blitz has carved out a name for himself in “family games,” but the studios are also working other areas such as serious games.
* Freestyle Games
The Leamington Spa-based firm, which employs about 100, is a specialist in mass-market music-based gaming and has worked on games titles like the Guitar Hero franchise. It was founded in 2002 but was taken over in September last year by US giant Activision Blizzard.
