A UK games studio in business for nearly a decade has plunged into administration. Maze Theory Games, a Manchester-based company which develops immersive gaming stories in virtual reality (VR), has been in business since 2018. Its founders have decades of experience in the gaming industry, having sold games inspired by popular hit shows such as Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders.
The company has won multiple international awards in game designing, and specialises in creating gameplay experiences centred on active participation through the “power of presence” in VR. The business has over 4,000 followers on Instagram. On May 8, administrators Craig Johns and Jason Mark Elliott, both of Cowgills, were appointed, according to The Gazette.
It comes despite the VR sector being a rapidly growing, high-end component of the immersive technology market. Ukie, the trade body for the UK’s video games and interactive entertainment industry, found that UK consumers spent £8.76 billion on video games in 2025, a 7.4% increase on the previous year.
According to the body, the UK’s games industry has more than doubled in size over the last decade and now supports over 73,000 jobs and contributes £6 billion in gross value added to the UK economy annually, with studios thriving from Dundee to Leamington Spa, Manchester to Guildford, in every nation and region of the UK.
But not every gaming company is thriving. Apart from Maze Theory Games, earlier this year, GAME, a computer game shop widely-recognised on high streets across Britain, entered administration, shutting its final three standalone high-street stores in Dudley, Sutton, and Lancaster.