AROUND BRITAIN Scotland fact-fi le

Registered businesses: 307,770

Gross Value Added (GVA): £102bn (2009)

Area: 30,420 sq. m. Population: 5.2m

A B

Key export industries: Food and drink; chemicals; business services; electrical and instrument engineering; mechanical engineering

International airports: Four (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glasgow Prestwick and Aberdeen)

Universities: 15

HIGHLAND GAMES

Lorraine Shah reports on Scotland’s world-class video games industry

T

here are few more successful producers of video games in the world than the UK. Globally

renowned for their innovation, British video games studios create diverse, humorous and eclectic interactive entertainment widely regarded for its excellence by an international audience. One of the country’s major centres for this dynamic industry is Scotland, contributing to its increasingly vaunted ‘Silicon Glen’ status. Ranked third in Europe’s top 50 games developer locations, Scotland has consistently produced world-famous successful titles such as the classic Lemmings, the award-winning Championship Manager

and the global blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series, to name just a few. More than 80 games studios are

currently based in Scotland, mainly around Dundee. Today, there’s a strong and ever-growing cluster of creative talent in and around this area, helping local games companies keep to the forefront of the industry by creating cross-platform content. Recently, there has been a particular rise in the number of indie games producers in Scotland – the so-called ‘bedroom developers’ who produce games that can be played cheaply or for free on mobile phones and websites. Dan Wood, head of communications

and public affairs at video games trade body UKIE, says: “The UK video games industry is highly skilled and leads the way in producing innovative digital content, and nowhere is this more evident than in Scotland. “Scotland has long been a world leader in the creation of games and interactive entertainment and has been responsible for producing some of the biggest global success stories.”

GAMERS WANTED The bedrock of Scotland’s success has been the world-class games- development infrastructure that has grown up around the University of

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