Steel City Interactive Raises £15M to Develop Next-Generation Wrestling Games

Steel City Interactive, the Sheffield-based video game developer, has raised £15 million in funding from London Venture Partners, Novator Partners, and a group of business angels. The raise will be used to fund the company’s next slate of professional wrestling games as it develops its relationship with major promotions and expands its team.

Founded by Simon Sherrington and Oliver Sherrington, Steel City Interactive is one of the UK’s specialist console game studios, focusing on a genre — professional wrestling simulation — that has a large and passionate global fanbase but has historically been underserved by game developers. The company developed AEW: Fight Forever, a wrestling game based on All Elite Wrestling, one of the major US professional wrestling promotions, which was released in 2023.

The professional wrestling game market is dominated by the WWE 2K series from 2K Games, and Steel City’s strategy is to build a competing franchise that appeals to fans seeking a different gameplay experience and to align with promotions outside the WWE umbrella.

London Venture Partners, one of Europe’s most active games-focused venture funds, led the investment alongside Iceland-based Novator Partners. The raise reflects continued investor interest in specialist games studios with established IP relationships, even as the broader games market has faced headwinds from post-pandemic normalisation.

The funding will support development of Steel City’s next titles, team expansion at its Sheffield studio, and the continued evolution of its wrestling game engine and online features.