Software & Technology

Gaming

The cover of a video game, "Dead End Job", featuring cartoon characters.
Dead End Job, a game developed by Edinburgh-based studio Ant Workshop for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. © Ant Workshop

Edinburgh has a well-established games industry. The city is home to RockStar North, the studio that has produced multiple bestselling and award-winning games including the Grand Theft Auto franchise and Red Dead Redemption 2. The fantasy sports company FanDuel was founded in Edinburgh and has its engineering base in the city.

The city is also home to multiple indie game developers including Ant Workshop (Binaries, Dead End Job, Dungeon Golf), Haiku Interactive (Dwerp Saga), KeelWorks (Cygni: All Guns Blazing!), Lucky Frame (The Nightmare Cooperative), BearHammer Games (BearHammer), Made With Numbers (The Exomachinist), and Games Without Frontiers (ROCKET-remote), along with Build a Rocket Boy, a new studio established by Rockstar North founder and former president Leslie Benzies that is currently developing EVERYWHERƎ.

In addition to game developers, Edinburgh is also home to multiple companies that provide tools and expertise to the games industry, among them specialist consultancy Black Company StudiosSpeech Graphics (a specialist supplier of lip-synch technology for game developers), deltaDNA (which provides data analytics services to the game industry), Kythera (which develops AI middleware for game engines), and AdInMo (which provides an in-game advertising platform). The city is also home to publishers such as Firestoke.

Education

Edinburgh College offers a Higher National Diploma in Computer Games Development. Edinburgh Napier University offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Games Development, while Heriot-Watt University offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Systems (Games Programming) and a Master of Design degree in Games Design and Development.

A vector graphic of a videogame controller..

Contact us

Is your organisation interested in locating or expanding in Edinburgh? If so, please get in touch to discuss how we can provide free and confidential support for your project.

Follow us on social media