It's widely acknowledged that the broader video game industry, encompassing both dedicated systems and smart devices, is now statistically and definitively one of the most powerful entertainment industries in the world. In recent years its profile has increased a great deal, making gaming comparable to established sectors such as film, TV and music.
Scotland has seen particularly rapid growth in the development sector, with Rockstar Games being the highest profile studio with origins in the country. There are various others, of course, including 4J Studios, which has established a strong reputation in its work porting Minecraft to various systems. Referencing North Sea Oil - a major source of jobs in Scotland and a key part of the UK economy - the 4J Studio Chairman has said the following to a Scottish Affairs select committee about the potential growth for the industry.
We're living in a time where the pace of change has never been faster, and nowhere more so than in our sector.
The increased rate of change in things like virtual reality and augmented reality, which is just around the corner now, means the growth potential for this industry is not five or 10% a year, it's hundreds of percent.
The opportunity is huge.
It will make North Sea oil look like a drop in the ocean. We're trying to hold a tiger by the tail.
If there was ever a time to get serious about this industry, this is it - if we let this opportunity pass by, others will take it and Scotland will languish.
Dr Jo. Twist from the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (better known as UKIE) also highlighted that the current debate and Immigration policy in the UK was potentially damaging to the sector: "We must be able to continue to attract overseas talent while we are fixing our own homegrown talent pipeline".
Having attended a few meet-ups and events for smaller developers in Scotland recently, it certainly does seem to us to be a vibrant area at all levels. Not a huge number of games we've seen seem to be targeting Nintendo hardware, but hopefully with greater communication and support such as that in the latest version of its developer portal, the big N can continue to attract developers of all sizes.
So ends our random industry news post of the day.
[source bbc.co.uk]
Comments 14
Okay, I'm going to love seeing how many people get the sub-title joke.
In any case, it's nice to hear that Scotland (and unless they gain independence in the future, the UK as well) is gaining a healthy video game industry... even if I'm unaware of any games or series that has specifically come from Scotland. In any case, good on them, more countries having thriving and developing video game companies is always pleasing to hear.
On another note, the point about Rockstar Games confuses me. I had a feeling they were a UK based game company and yet the Wikipedia article states their headquarters are in New York. Said Wikipedia article doesn't seem to go into much depth regarding the history of the company either. I'm also trusting a Wikipedia article as my only source... maybe that is the primary problem.
Scotland......the origin of the award winning game Scotland Yard.
OK when I read the headline, it sounded to me as if there's a crash in the video game industry in Scotland!
I'm at Abertay doing Computer Games Development so this is great news for me. I genuinely do hope this becomes a major point in the next referendum debate. It's a growing industry and what I'll be (hopefully) going into.
Hey I'll work for a software dev team... or Belhaven, whatever.
That subtitle is great.
I go to Uni in Glasgow, live just outside and attend all sorts of geek get-togethers there so I know what goes down. I am friends with SO many people who are doing games design, media studies, computer science etc (many from Dundee of course) it's crazy how popular it is! I hope this opportunity is indeed solid as we're certainly embracing it!! I'm doing Computer and Electronic Systems at Strathclyde myself, which can (and hopefully will) tie in to video-games, specifically hardware and low level software.
"..North Sea oil look like a drop in the ocean." Sound so wrong, and so right too.
@Souldin
Rockstar were based in Scotland... a while ago. They have a large studio in Edinburgh city centre called 'Rockstar North'. Now they are multinational they are not based there any more, but a considerable amount of development has been carried out in bonnie Scotland.
I do remember watching a debate on BBC Parliament, and hearing a Scottish minister trying to claim Minecraft as a Scottish success story. That was funny. Especially as he seemed to downplay Grand Theft Auto - Scotland's gift to the video game world.
It's ironic that Scotland is such a believer and supporter of the EU, with whom it wants to maintain membership with, but yet it was the EU which held back gaming industry in the UK for years with it's slow, bureaucratic, red-tape nonsense.
If it wasn't for the EU, UK gaming industry would be far more ahead than it is now and succeeded the oil industry.
Mostly because of one company, lol.
@ZenTurtle Yeah, but all the GTA games comes out of Rockstar North, and that's the biggest thing coming out of Rockstar Wherever.
The nice thing about growth in this industry is that it won't have such severely destructive environmental effects compared to oil drilling. Of course, nothing can grow forever... No such thing as infinite growth, not to mention there's a fundamental conflict between growth and environmental protection...
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