A national testbed for innovation in Dundee – the InGAME (Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise) R&D centre – is credited with creating substantial growth in the UK’s videogames sector, according to a report from BiGGAR Economics.

The InGAME initiative was established in 2018, in a collaboration between Abertay University, University of Dundee, the University of St Andrews and other key industry partners. It operates under the umbrella of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Creative Industries Clusters Programme, which is supported by funding from the UK government. 

The report found that businesses that collaborated with InGAME national testbed are expected to contribute around £84.7 million GVA (gross value added) to the UK economy in the next decade. Economic analysis likens the return for investment as every £1 of public funding is anticipated to produce a £15.90 GVA.  

In addition to the financial gains, the initiative is expected to support the creation of 175 jobs, 115 of which will be in the Tay Cities Region itself. 

Since its launch, the initiative has been able to fund 177 research projects, surpassing the original target of 125. It has also upskilled and trained 2,283 professionals, far more than its original target of 500, and leveraged £11.1m in co-investment, over its original target of £1.8m. 

“The games sector is young and dynamic. Things tend to move quickly. Before engaging with this scheme [my business] was at the slower end of the spectrum. Since then things have speeded up. We are now more confident, less risk adverse and better equipped to take decisions. This is likely to have long term benefits for competitiveness,” said a business leader supported by InGAME. 

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Of the companies that partnered with InGAME, 76% managed to create one or more new games, products, or services, 72% of which developed novel tools or technologies. 

“InGAME has been a realistic and highly attractive way for organisations including SMEs to engage with R&D, a key route to raising competitiveness for individual companies and Scotland and the UK as a whole,” said Julie Craik, Dundee City Council member. 

The region’s history in video game development is full of success stories. In particular, the award winning Dundee-based 4J studios which is known for porting Minecraft to consoles and handheld platforms.