Scotland's video game sector '˜rockets' with record growth

Scotland's burgeoning video games sector has grown by 27 per cent in less than two years and employs thousands of people, a new report has revealed.

A still from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which was produced in Edinburgh. Picture: GTA: Vice City

A report from the umbrella body for digital publishers and video games developers, TIGA, also showed that Scotland is the third largest cluster in the UK for video games, behind London and the South East of England.

Over 1500 permanent full-time staff are now working on games development in the sector across 91 companies, with 2,800 employees in jobs that indirectly support the sector.

11.6 per cent of the UK’s games developers are based in Scotland, as the TIGA report showed growth of 27 per cent between March 2016 and November 2017.

The CEO of TIGA is now calling for more efforts and investment to support the growing sector, including a Games Investment Fund which would help grow businesses.

Scotland’s most famous company in the sector is Rockstar, who produce the Grand Theft Auto series of games, which are some of the most lauded and best-selling of all time.

“The Scottish video games industry is rocketing away,” said TIGA CEO Richard Wilson. “The Scottish games sector is diverse, with companies working in games for mobile, online, educational and console markets.

“If the industry is to continue to grow then we need to ensure that more Scottish games companies benefit from video games tax relief, a measure which effectively reduce the cost of games development.”