Creative Scotland report ‘ridiculously inaccurate’

A report examining the contribution of the creative industries to Scotland has emerged that observers say misrepresents the nation’s games industry.

The report claims that in 2010, the games industry in Scotland employed 200 people – a number less than the 250 employed at Edinburgh’s Rockstar North – and had a gross value add of £0 (allowing for rounding).

"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," writes Scottishgames.net’s Brian Baglow in an analysis feature posted on Develop today. "Moving forward policy decisions, funding allocations etc. will all be made based on the information in this document.

"If ‘computer games’ is seen as small, insignificant and of little economic value then the sector will treated as such. As it stands in this report, computer games is only creative industry – of sixteen – which creates no value. It is shown as having less direct employment (200) than music (400), cultural education (400) or visual art (800) or photography (900)."

Click here to read the full analysis by Baglow.