UKIE Wants to Attract Scottish Game Devs With Its Own Organization

The British industry association UKIE has launched Interactive Entertainment Scotland (ies), its own organization for the Scottish gaming industry. The industry has grown significantly in recent years and has organized itself with the Scottish Game Developers Organization.

UKIE's initiative to give Scottish companies in the British gaming industry their own home with Interactive Entertainment Scotland (IES) probably also has strategic reasons. In any case, the founding of IES represents a paradigm shift on the part of UKIE and thus a further change that has been heralded since the appointment of CEO Nick Poole around 1.5 years ago.

Although UKIE has always seen itself as representing companies from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, its focus has mostly been on activities in the Greater London area and a few other gaming hubs, all of which, with the exception of Edinburgh, are located in England.

"Scotland has always been a vital part of the UK’s games success story," says Nick Poole, CEO of Ukie, reaching out to Scottish game developers. "The launch of Interactive Entertainment Scotland recognises the sector’s maturity and importance north of the border. IES will provide the focused, local representation that Scottish studios deserve while maintaining the collective strength that comes from being part of the UK’s broader games ecosystem."

They seem quite willing to do so, even though the industry in Scotland has long since organized itself into organizations such as the Scottish Game Developers Association (SGDA), which emerged from IGDA Scotland, and the Scottish Games Network. "The launch of Interactive Entertainment Scotland comes at an inflexion point for the sector globally and an opportune time for Scotland with many of the world’s top industry executives here this week. The forthcoming release of GTA 6 will reshape the entire video game landscape and our new game Reforj is another example of how Scotland is positioned to win on the world stage," says Chris van der Kuyl, Chairman of 4J Studios, which is also member of the SGDA.

Indeed, the Scottish gaming industry has grown significantly in recent years, as confirmed by Business Minister Richard Lochhead. "As the birthplace of globally significant titles from Lemmings to Grand Theft Auto and home to companies involved in globally significant titles such as Minecraft, the games industry in Scotland has undergone meteoric growth. It now comprises of 130 computer game enterprises, compared to just 15 in 2010 while the number of people working in the industry has doubled from 1,045 in 2015 to 2,125 in 2023," he says. "I look forward to working closely with Interactive Entertainment Scotland to build even further on these remarkable achievements."

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