As the world waits for Grand Theft Auto VI, the franchise's origins still trace back to a group of young developers working in Dundee almost 30 years ago, the BBC reported.
The original GTA was built by Scottish studio DMA Design. "It was entirely the work of a Scottish team, all novices, we had no games design degrees at that point," said Brian Baglow, who worked as a writer on the game. "The only people who believed in it were DMA Design. The publisher wanted to kill it." Over the last three decades, the game has sold hundreds of millions of copies, while DMA Design became Rockstar North, moved to Edinburgh, and now employs more than 1,000 people. Baglow, now a leading voice in Scotland's games industry, called the franchise "our biggest cultural export ever," and said it is still being made in Scotland.
The story now extends far beyond one series. Scottish government figures show the number of games companies operating in Scotland was about 130 in 2024, up from just 15 in 2010. Over the same period, industry turnover grew from £38.1 million to £339.7 million.
From Dundee degrees to a Silent Hill set in Scotland
Chris van der Kuyl, who co-founded VIS Entertainment in the early 1990s, told the BBC the industry is almost unrecognisable from the one he entered. "When we started out, people didn't think about Scotland at all," he said. "There were a few people dotted around, but the main people were DMA in Dundee." Abertay University in Dundee launched the world's first computer games degree in 1997, creating a talent pipeline van der Kuyl says was crucial. In 2005 he co-founded Dundee-based 4J Studios, which adapted Minecraft for consoles. He estimates those console editions have sold about 70 million copies. His company now employs 57 people, a fraction of Rockstar North but still one of the biggest games firms in Scotland. Many other developers, he said, are "only two or three people doing quite interesting stuff as indie developers." He now compares Scotland's reputation to established hubs such as Sweden and the west coast of the United States.
Glasgow-based Screen Burn employs 27 staff. Formerly known as No Code, the studio earned a Bafta for Best British Game in 2020 with Observation. It has recently attracted attention for Silent Hill: Townfall, a new instalment in the horror franchise. The team pitched its own story, setting the game in a fictional Scottish town. Co-founder Jon McKellan said, "This is our pitch, this was our story, we really put our stamp on it." He also described Rockstar as "a massive, immovable object" in the sector: "It's kind of like if you spend all your water on the one plant, you'll have one great tree and the rest of it will die out." After a Dundee studio collapsed early in his career, he said there were "no other opportunities in Scotland at the time, it was either Rockstar or move down south." He spent five years in England before returning to start his own studio. Screen Burn, he said, is "maybe hiring one or two people a year" and "can't absorb every graduate that's coming out."
Baglow said the hardest problem now is not making games but finding players, as development tools have become more widely available and competition for audiences has intensified. "That need for a breakout consumer hit, and if you don't get it, it kills your studio," he said. Scotland's public figures show a sector that has grown more than eightfold in turnover since 2010. The open question in the BBC's account is whether that growth can sustain smaller studios in the shadow of a 1,000-person franchise factory in Edinburgh.