But did you know that Scotland has been at the forefront of so many good things in gaming & technology and we have been for a long time!
For such a wee country, Scotland has produced some truly monumental contributions to the world at large.
From the pneumatic tyre to the steam engine and from the colour photograph to the cludgie (or flushing toilet to the non-Scots), Scotland has been the home of many a great invention.
In the kitchen, where you may well mix your Z Game, the fridge and toaster are thanks to Scots. Whilst in health we have contributed penicillin, the MRI scanner, hypodermic syringes, and the daily disposable contact lens.
Scotland, of course, it’s rightly known for its innovations in technology, having brought the ATM, the television, and the telephone to the world!
Fast forward to today and we can add some phenomenal videogames being delivered, from Lemmings and GTA to Minecraft’s Console Edition, Red Dead Redemption, Halo’s Master Chief Collection and even Angry Birds – the wee country of Scotland has delivered some of the world’s most well known and most played games.
Dundee in particular has been the home of many a development, with many of the titles mentioned above being developed in the city of ‘jute, jam and journalism’, via the likes of 4J Studios, Rockstar Games, Epic Games and many others.
Such is the scale of Dundee’s gaming scene, the city’s Abertay University became the first university on the planet to offer a computer games degree, back in 1997.
Today Abertay Uni is home to the UK’s first-ever Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education.
They have also been ranked as the best in Europe for video games degrees by the prestigious Princetown Review – an accolade won a highly impressive seven years in a row.
The ongoing success of the city and its contribution to gaming continues to grow, including the development of a £60m, futuristic, 4,000 seat eSports arena, which is planned to open in 2024.
The arena is being designed with the aim of becoming the world’s best streaming venue.
It will also further enhance educational, economic, entertainment and employment opportunities in the city.
But it’s not just Dundee where the videogame industry is booming!
Glasgow’s School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation specialises in immersive systems design for 3D modelling, games, and virtual reality. Whilst Project Mobius, a £1 million collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Sublime Digital, will build a pioneering VR education platform.
The Global Research Innovation Development Centre (GRID) at Heriot-Watt University offers design solutions through its AR, VR and gaming studios and The Bayes Centre is the University of Edinburgh’s innovation hub for data science and artificial intelligence.
Staying in Edinburgh, The Alan Turing Institute is the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence and works with 13 university partners including the University of Edinburgh.
Then of course there are the games set in Scotland – from MediEvil (an old personal favourite of Pauls) to Forza Horizon 4, Call of Duty Ghosts and Modern Warfare 3, as well as various golf games, all the Harry Potters and even Tekken, Tomb Raider and X-Men.
Scotland has been the ‘home’ to many a game, scene, backdrop or mission and it’s no wonder given the natural beauty of our wee country.
So the next time you pick up your controller and stare into the big screen, ahead of your next big Z Game fuelled win, take a moment to thank the Scots who made it all possible.