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Government report snubs Scottish games industry

DC Research claims only 200 working in games, values it at £0

A new report has caused controversy by suggesting the Scottish games industry has no students, no value and employs just 200 people.

After reading the report from DC Research, ScottishGames found that it suggested that just 200 people in Scotland were employed by the games industry, and it had a gross value of £0. That is not a typo.

It put the industry at just 0.1 per cent when it came to its contribution to the Scottish economy, and because that percentage was recorded as less than £10 million, it has simply been rounded down to zero.

The report also identified zero students studying game related subjects, despite the international reputation of the University of Abertay Dundee.

The report, created by government associations Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprises, used information from 2010, and classified games in the Audio-Visual category.

ScottishGames pointed out that the report omist companies that fall under more than one category, and that there are actually over 120 game companies in the country, with RockStar North alone employing more than 200 people.

"The problem is that this is an official report created by two Scottish government organisations which oversee the cultural and enterprise elements of the Scottish economy. Moving forward policy decisions, funding allocations etc. will all be made based on the information in this document," it declared.

It called for the industry to work together to make sure the government and the research companies it turns to have a better awareness of and better statistics about itself.

"We also need to decide exactly how companies creating, publishing or otherwise working with games are categorised, defined and discovered."

"If this means working together, then we're going to have to grit our teeth, get out of the offices and actually do something. Otherwise we run the risk of being sidelined, overlooked and isolated from the wider creative industries. Seen as a curiosity and a hobby, rather than part of the most significant new creative industry in the world today."

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Rachel Weber avatar

Rachel Weber

Senior Editor

Rachel Weber has been with GamesIndustry since 2011 and specialises in news-writing and investigative journalism. She has more than five years of consumer experience, having previously worked for Future Publishing in the UK.

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