The world of gaming has come a long way since the early days in the 1960s. Back then, we saw some of the earliest examples of video games created by enthusiasts and academics, toiling away just for the love of the concept.
Fast forward to today and a thriving industry has developed around the concept pioneered in the Swinging Sixties.
Thanks to those dedicated geeks, it is now possible to enjoy the widest variety of games imaginable. They range from digital versions of classic card games through to AAA shoot’em ups and sports simulators.
Through iGaming sites like PokerStars, players can even partake in real-money poker games, using either the desktop or mobile software to make a deposit and then compete against others from around the world.Â
But while most of us enjoy playing some of the millions of gaming options available, few of us give much thought to who makes them. Yet, for Scottish gamers, there is a good chance that you cross paths with many of these developers on a regular basis.
That’s because Scotland is home to some of the biggest and most influential video game development studios on the planet. Right here in Alba, Scottish designers, programmers, testers, writers, and project managers continue to produce some of the best content you’ll ever play.
Sceptical? Here’s the proof.
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto is one of the best-selling video game franchises in the history of gaming. Its most recent release, GTA V, is ranked second in the all-time list of units sold after shifting more than 169 million copies.
Other titles from the series also place high up in the list, including GTA San Andreas (30th with 27.5 million copies sold), and GTA IV (36th with 25 million copies sold).
All of the games were developed here in Scotland by Rockstar North.
Founded as DMA Design in Dundee, the company has now moved to Edinburgh, with its HQ in Barclay House.
A small team, which included Leslie Benzies, created the original Grand Theft Auto game, though its final form was somewhat of a happy accident after a bug during testing was found to create a more fun experience.Â
Today, the team is much larger and has help from other offices, but a large amount of the work continues to be done in Scotland.
DMA/Rockstar North’s Other Work
While Grand Theft Auto is very clearly the biggest video game export from Scotland, it is not the only one. DMA and Rockstar North have also produced a long list of other hit titles, including Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, Lemmings, Manhunt, Bully, L.A. Noire, Max Payne, Body Harvest, and Unirally.
They have all been huge successes, though none have quite replicated the levels of GTA.
Epic Games
Epic Games is a company best known for creating the smash hit Fortnite. It does, however, have a much larger repertoire of products and has been incredibly successful at vertical integration.Â
Not only does Epic Games create its own titles, but it owns the Epic Games Store, a digital marketplace for it and other publishers to sell their content. The company also owns the Unreal Engine, the platform on which many of the world’s most successful games are developed.
Although Epic Games is headquartered in Maryland, it has an office here in Edinburgh.
This is where its Cloudgine subsidiary is based. This division has produced a cloud-based system to allow developers to create large games that can run on small and underpowered devices by offloading the heavy lifting to the cloud.
This technology is now being integrated into the Unreal Engine with the work of talented Scottish developers.
Ruffian Games
Before it was purchased by Rockstar and renamed Rockstar Dundee, Ruffian Games was another major developer in Scotland.Â
The company, as its name suggests, is based in Dundee. From this base, it has created several hit titles, including Crackdown 2, Fragmental, Kinect Star Wars, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
As Rockstar Dundee, the company continues to work on some of the world’s biggest video game content, helping Scotland to punch well above its weight in the gaming world.
