Dismay as video games are snubbed for BAFTA Scotland Awards

Sector has been valued at £350m to economy

Brian Baglow is the founder of the Scottish Games Network and Scottish Games Week.

It is a booming industry which supports more than 2000 jobs and has been valued at more than £350m for the Scottish economy.

But video game industry leaders have hit out after the sector was snubbed by the organisers of one of the country’s biggest entertainment awards.

BAFTA Scotland has decided to drop the long-running gaming category from its annual event in Glasgow, blaming a lack of interest from games developers and creators.

The video game Grand Theft Auto was developed in Scotland and launched in 1997. Picture: Chris Delmas/AFP/Getty

However the decision has emerged months after the organisers of a new Scottish Games Awards event managed to attract 110 entries.

The event is part of a new Scottish Games Week showcase which has been backed by the Scottish Government since it was launched in 2022 by the Scottish Games Network, the main voice for the industry.

The Scottish video games sector is thought to have around 150 active companies and boast around eight per cent of the UK’s gaming studios.

New research published in October revealed that Scotland is now the fastest growing region in the UK for the gaming sector, with Dundee boasting the fourth highest concentration of gaming companies.

Brian Baglow is the founder of the Scottish Games Network and Scottish Games Week.

BAFTA, which staged its own UK-wide awards ceremony for the gaming industry, has insisted it has not taken a permanent decision to drop the game category from its Scottish awards.

However it has confirmed that it has decided not to accept any entries for this year's awards while the category is “under active review.”

Scottish Games Network founder Brian Baglow said: “BAFTA Scotland seems to have taken a decision that the studios have not been interested enough in entering their awards, but I think that’s a mistake.

“We have run the Scottish Games Awards for the last two years. We had 12 categories in 2022 and extended that to 15 last year, and had more than 100 entries in both years.

“There’s definitely an appetite there and definitely a demand – we will definitely be having another awards ceremony this year. It’s already too important an event not to do it now.

"We need to be doing far more shouting and celebrating the gaming talent that is working in Scotland today. We’re far too reliant on what is now ancient history.

"The two things that Scotland knows about Scotland’s gaming industry is that it made Lemmings, which came out in 1991, and Grand Theft Auto, which was launched in 1997.

“Awards ceremony in Scotland with the prestige, prestige and credibility of BAFTA is huge. It was very disappointing to hear that they’re not accepting game entries this year.

"I would be very interested in talking to BAFTA Scotland to see if there is some way that we can work together to celebrate and showcase gaming, which is a sector that is bigger globally than film and television.”

When the Scottish Games Awards were launched in 2022, the Scottish Government praised the industry’s “world-class reputation” for games development and even described the sector as “Scotland’s secret weapon.”

However Mr Baglow suggested the gaming sector was still not properly recognised as being part of the screen industry in Scotland.

He added: "We have a very odd situation in Scotland now, where nobody really knows where the gaming industry fits and nobody takes ownership of it. We’re a bit dispossessed. That’s just not the case elsewhere in the UK.”

A spokeswoman for BAFTA said: “The BAFTA Scotland Awards games category is paused in its current form whilst we consult with industry and explore all avenues for bolstering entry numbers given the minimum threshold was not reached in 2023.

“All Scotland based games practitioners are eligible to enter into the BAFTA Games Awards, are eligible for BAFTA and BAFTA Scotland’s Special Awards, and supporting and promoting the Scottish games industry is a central pillar of BAFTA Scotland’s work year-round.”