Creative England and Imaginarium Studios unite to form new publisher

Creative England and The Imaginarium Studios have joined forces to create a new independent publisher.

Creative England aims to invest in the UK creative industries, including film and games, to promote the UK’s output.

Imaginarium was founded by actor Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and producer Jonathan Cavendish in 2011, and specialises in providing motion capture technology for both film and games.

In a joint announcement at the Creative England Live 2016: Catalyse event, the firms said that they would work to “to help develop and grow the UK games development community, enabling greater opportunities for small content creators to flourish, mobilise and scale up both in the UK and internationally”.

The venture will develop and curate games and apps from around the world, without limiting itself to one platform.

It will focus on smaller studios and projects, with the firms saying the new publisher “will bridge the gap between small and dispersed game developers and global games publishers, acting as a crucial intermediary to broker commercial deals between the grassroots talent and the global players”.

Between five and 10 games are expected to be brought to market during the partnership’s first 12 months.

As well as working together to publish other companies’ titles, Creative England will also back a game created by Imaginarium based on the new Planet of the Apes movies, which is set for release next year.

“There is a wealth of games development talent across our country and this partnership will provide a route to market for many of the fantastic content creators and businesses we invest in, allowing the big guys and little guys to join forces to produce amazing new content,” said Solomon Nwabueze, director of content at Creative England.