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The Scottish Government set for further research into computer games industry following 'zero' value results

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

September 7, 2012 | 3 min read

The Scottish Government has responded to a report which claimed that the computer games sector had a value of ‘zero’, by stating its intention to carry out further research following the one released by Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise today.

The ‘Arts and Creative Industries Economic Impact’ study, which gave the much lauded Scottish video games industry and value of zero, stipulating that it had an monetary value of under £10m in total, also claimed that less than 200 people work within the sector in Scotland too.

Creative Scotland has since commented on the research, undertaken by DC Research, with input from CogentSI and Pirnie ltd, by stating; “The official statistics on which the report is based are beyond the control of Creative Scotland. Their limitations were acknowledged at the time of publication and figures from the games industry’s trade body were highlighted. The report remains a valuable contribution to assessing the contribution of the arts and creative industries in Scotland – with the caveats that were highlighted at the time of publication.”

However, it seems the Scottish Government is less than convinced by the findings, and has also released a statement highlighting its own recent findings about the value of the industry; “This study itself acknowledges upfront that the computer games sector data is anomalous. Official Scottish Government statistics (SABS) value the Computer Games, Software and Electronic Publishing sectors in 2010 at just over #1bn GVA - representing about a third of the Creative Industries sector in Scotland.”

The spokesperson’s statement continued; “We are aware of the need for more detailed and robust information about the value of the computer games sector to the Scottish economy. This is something we are currently working on, in collaboration with industry and agency partners.”

Read Brian Baglow, editor-in-chief at Scottishgames.net’s reaction to the findings in his own comment piece on The Drum.

Video game image courtesy of Shutterstock

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