Scottish Games Week to Return Later This Year

Graham Turner

13 April 2023, 11.22am

Scottish Games Week 2023 will celebrate all aspects of the global games ecosystem and the creators, educators and pioneers working in Scotland, with events taking place throughout the country from October 30 – November 3.

Scottish Games Week (SG23) is set to return later this year with a programme of events taking place across the country from 30 October to 3 November.

SGW23 will bring back all of the key events from the 2022 programme, in new venues, with new partners and a focus on collaboration, highlighting the entire games ecosystem from design and development, to education and esports.

This year’s event will kick off in Edinburgh with a two-day conference on October 30th and 31st.

Last year’s event has also been announced as a finalist in the 2023 MCV/Develop Awards in the event category, competing against events such as London Games Week, Develop: Brighton and EGX.

In addition to the key events in the programme, the organisers of Scottish Games Week are actively looking for partners and collaborators to join the programme and to create fringe and satellite events as part of the whole festival.

SGW23 will celebrate all aspects of the global games ecosystem and the creators, educators and pioneers working in Scotland. The key themes for this year’s events are: design, build, grow, play and learn – with proposals for talks, presentations, panels, performances and other creative ideas opening soon.

The key events in SGW23 will include:

SGW Conference – a two-day industry conference for game creators, publishers, investors and more.
More Than Games – an exploration of the transformative potential of games in our increasingly digital world, for a non-games-creating audience.
Education Symposium – An invitation-only event focused upon educators in games-related courses.
Scottish Games Awards – A celebration of the talent, creativity and expertise in the Scottish games ecosystem.

In addition, a calendar of fringe and satellite events are also being planned which will open the event up to organisations and individuals across the whole of Scotland.

Brian Baglow, Founder and Director of Scottish Games Week, said: “In 2022, the first ever Scottish Games Week pulled in over 500 people from around the world. Alongside game creators, publishers and indie studios, we pulled in participants including educators, legislators and speakers from the wider creative world.

“In 2023 we plan to build upon the success of last year’s event and produce an even bigger and more inclusive programme, built upon collaboration and reflecting the reality of the global games ecosystem and bringing together every part of the incredible community we have here in Scotland, across the wider UK and beyond.”

Minister for Small Business, Innovation & Trade Richard Lochhead, added: “The inaugural Scottish Games Week in 2022 shone the spotlight on Scotland’s impressive gaming sector and all of the talented organisations and individuals involved.

“Gaming and all associated creative industries are vital to Scotland’s digital future and will play an important role as we strive towards a wellbeing economy.

“It is great to announce the Scottish Government will support the 2nd Scottish Games Week through the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review programme.”