By Daibhi Armitage

Earlier on today, you saw that we reported on the fact that the InGAME facility in Dundee had accelerated the UK video game sector’s growth through their research, development and innovation.

This article will go through that one paragraph-by-paragraph, putting the whole thing into simple, explainable English and clarifying any confusing jargon, because we can’t all work in the industry and understand it all.

So, the InGAME facility, which is a research and development centre in Dundee, has managed to create a giant amount of growth in the UK’s video game sector. This has validated a new model for innovation ecosystems which can now be utilized across the UK.

This centre is funded by the UK Government and the Scottish arts council, and is a partnership between two universities based in Dundee and partners from across the video games industry itself.

BiGGAR Economics, a economics consultancy firm who provide economics reports from across Europe, released a report showing the economic and social impacts of the InGAME centre’s new model. The companies working with InGAME are expected to make an extra £84.7 million for the video games industry in the UK over the next five years due to this model. We call this Gross Value Addition. Translated into English, what this means is the value that companies put into the market, and how much they create in revenue.

In this report, it shows that over the next five years, this one centre in Dundee’s impacts are going to create at least 115 jobs in a city widely derided in Scotland due to poor employment stats. That can only be a good thing, regardless of political allegiances et cetera.

The centre’s main goal is to prove that Research and Development can have a positive impact on the city, thus increasing value and scale to Dundee through innovation. This includes creating applied research with others in the industry, creating and providing support to indie developers and solving challenges in video game development by creating new solutions. To date, more than 177 new research projects have been funded through an innovation voucher scheme the centre provides. This has allowed more than 2200 games industry professionals and researchers to improve their skills through training and engagement activities.

More that 75% of companies that have worked with the centre have developed one or more new games, products, services, or original pieces of intellectual property through this scheme and 72% have developed new tools or technology through this. This is a huge leap in the industry, happening in a city that is quickly becoming at the forefront of videogame development once again.

This means, to paraphrase Steven Rome (The Fair Work, Economic Growth and Infrastructure Convenor Councillor for Dundee): Dundee is getting named alongside places like Seattle, Tokyo, Las Vegas and Seoul when we talk about videogames development, and is becoming one of the world’s leading and most established gaming hubs. InGAME is now at the heart of that, driving economic growth by supporting video game developers and providing training for those wanting to get into the industry. They’re turning dreams and ideas into economic value and gainful employment in Dundee and across Scotland and the wider UK.

In the hopes this helped you understand the exclusive, my name is Daibhi, and you are all legends.