Discover how a coincidence led to the rise of the British gaming industry on a global level, and the transition from the bedroom coder to games design degrees.

The British computer game industry is thriving, with an outsized influence on the global digital entertainment landscape, which means there is perhaps no better place in the world to get a degree in games design.

With Ukie estimating the value of the sector at around £6bn, video games are gigantic, but what makes them even more fascinating is that the industry began in tiny computer shops and back bedrooms, with possibly the biggest and most important games company in the UK only existing due to a truly incredible coincidence involving the King of Rock and Roll.

On 16th August 1977, Elvis Presley was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, at the age of just 42. Within a couple of weeks, his song Way Down topped the UK Top 40 charts, and eight other songs joined it.

Naturally, everything changed for the global music scene, but the biggest impact on the future of gaming was the cancellation of an appearance on the BBC’s Top of the Pops for a band called Muscles, which would have all but guaranteed them a spot in the UK Top 40 in any other week.

In the end, the stalled momentum caused the band to split, leaving lead guitarist, frontman and maths teacher Geoff Brown looking for an alternative. He noticed children in his classes playing video games, and he inadvertently became a distributor of a space shooter called Galactic Chase.

This would eventually lead to the development of US Gold, a record label for video games that often acted as a publisher and distributor for American software in the UK.

Eventually, US Gold and its distribution subsidiary Centresoft (both of which later merged to form CentreGold) became one of the biggest and most powerful forces in British gaming up until 1996, when they were bought by fellow publishers Domark to form Eidos.

Eidos would publish Core Design’s Tomb Raider, one of the most successful British video games ever, something that might not have happened had its greatest champion’s rock band been able to play on Top of the Pops.