Scotland now home to more than 4,000 games staff
Local industry grew by 27 per cent last year, with almost 100 companies based within the nation
New statistics have shown the ongoing growth of the Scottish games industry, which now employees more than 4,354 games professionals.
According to research by trade body TIGA, 1,540 of these are employed full-time in games development and spread across 91 companies by November 2017. This is an increase from 1,290 staff at 85 companies in 2016.
Notable Scottish developers include Grand Theft Auto studio Rockstar North, Epic's recent acquisition Cloudgine, mobile firm Outplay Entertainment, and 4J Studios, the team behind the console ports of Minecraft.
The other 2,814 employees are in jobs that indirectly support the nation's games development sector, also an increase from the 2,408 recorded in 2016.
TIGA also reports that the Scottish industry grew by 27 per cent between March 2016 and November 2017, making it the second fastest growing cluster in the UK - only behind the North West of England, which saw 32 per cent growth.
Scotland is the UK's third largest games cluster, after London and the South East. It is up to 8.9 per cent of all UK games companies, and employs 11.6 per cent of the UK's games developers - up from 9.8 per cent in 2016.
"The Scottish video games industry is rocketing away," says TIGA CEO Richard Wilson. "The Scottish games sector is diverse, with companies working in games for mobile, online, educational and console markets.
"If the industry is to continue to grow then we need to ensure that more Scottish games companies benefit from video games tax relief, a measure which effectively reduce the cost of games development."