Will 2025 be the biggest year for Scottish video games?

After a difficult year, the Scottish games industry hopes to bounce back in 2025 with the biggest video game release of a decade on the horizon.

Despite some major gaming titles being launched, last year was one of a great struggle for the video game industry in Scotland and beyond, with almost 15,000 people from the sector losing their jobs worldwide.

“The mantra over the last 12 months has been survive till 2025,” explains Brian Baglow, the founder and director of Scottish Games Network.

“It’s because the games industry globally has had this hugely volatile year—thousands and thousands of redundancies and layoffs, studio closures, and a significant slowdown in the growth of the market.”

But there is a cautious optimism within the industry that this year could turn things around.

Grand Theft Auto VI – Rockstar Games

The biggest video game release of a decade, Grand Theft Auto VI, which is being developed at large by Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, is set to release this autumn.

“It should be the single largest cultural and creative entertainment launch of the year—there’s nothing bigger coming out of Hollywood,” says Brian.

“And that’s going to bring the eyes of the world, not just the games world, but the eyes of the whole world to Scotland.”

The GTA is a colossus of the gaming world that hardly needs an introduction.

Originally developed by DMA Design in Dundee, the series has found worldwide fame, with GTA V being the second-best-selling video game ever, with over 210 million copies sold.

Now being developed by Rockstar, its newest iteration will, no doubt, hope follow up on the success of its predecessors.

A success that many in the local industry hope to build upon.

“It should be a focal point, the opportunity to show to the world this is from Scotland—it’s been made in Scotland from day one, this is what we’re capable of,” Brian adds.

But GTA VI is far from the only Scottish title that is set to release this year.

AETHUS – Pawsmonaut Games

AETHUS, an indie game developed by Edinburgh-based Pawsmonaut Games, already has a playable demo on Steam with a full release aimed for this year.

The survival crafting game is set in a ‘futuristic sci-fi world, full of ultra-capitalist mega-corporations’ where the player takes on the role of a mining engineer who is ‘trying to make something for herself and her family while unravelling a dystopian corporate conspiracy’.

“It’s very much a narrative-driven game with the story being at the heart of the whole game.

“While there are a lot of very good games out there in this genre, story is often an afterthought,” explains Alex Kane, the founder of the studio and its only full-time employee.

“I really wanted to make sure that there’s always motivation for the player to keep exploring the world, to keep building up their base, to keep going out—to have some heartfelt characters to meet, interesting moments, and a lot of relatable things.”

No novice to the industry, with the likes of Rockstar, Build A Rocket Boy, and Splash Damage on his CV, in May 2023 Alex decided that it’s time for him to leave the world of AAA games behind and create his own indie game.

Calling Scotland his home, he wanted to showcase his love for the country in AETHUS, with two of the main characters being Scottish and voiced by Scots.

“Obviously, it’s based on a different planet and in the future, but it’s as close to a Scottish character as you can get.

“I’ve got two wonderful voice actors playing the mining engineer and her artificial intelligence companion,” he says.

When asked what aspirations he has for the studio’s first game, Alex admits he is caught somewhere between realistic and ambitious, but no matter the result, he enjoyed every second he has spent on it.

“Working in games is a real privilege, and that is sometimes taken advantage of, and a lot of the story and the setting of the game and, especially, the motivations for the characters is often a bit of a parallel to my own life and the way that I feel about the industry.

“It’s very much a story about building something for yourself and kind of fighting against the odds of all the big dogs out there,” he adds.

“I thought I loved my job before I went and did this, but now I know that I really love it.”

Reforj – 4J Studios

Moving on from an indie game developed in Edinburgh to an AAA game being laboured on in Dundee, where 4J Studios is cooking up whole new worlds for players to explore.

Known for getting the global phenomenon Minecraft onto consoles, the studio is crafting a new project of their own, where they hope to fully tap into the rich pool of experience of the open-world sandbox genre.

“There’s a rich amount of genre and technical experience within the studio that is frankly wasted if we’re not doing something in this space,” explains Brian Gomez, the creative director and executive producer at 4J Studios.

While comparisons are inevitable, Reforj aspires to be much more than just Minecraft 2.0.

Built on the new proprietary Elements Engine, Brian hopes their new title brings a fresh perspective on the genre, one that offers a new mythology and a place that’s very different from what has been seen in other games.

“The land is actually more organic-looking than in Minecraft; you don’t just plunk down bricks.

“You can place a cube of an element, choose a carving tool and reshape it, and that comes into the types of things you’re able to build, progressing from a little hovel up to a bigger civilisation that spans multiple worlds.”

The studio hopes to put out a closed alpha build of the game for a limited amount of ‘pioneers’ to explore in the next couple of months.

And there even might be a couple of Scottish ‘easter eggs’ for players to be found, with internal demos featuring Dundee and other local landmarks.

“I am quite certain those and other elements that are part of Scottish architecture and scenery will end up creeping their way in,” admits Brian, “because we just can’t help ourselves.”

MindsEye – Build A Rocket Boy

Back in the capital, former GTA producer Leslie Benzies and his Build A Rocket Boy studio aim to launch their big-budget single-player title MindsEye this summer.

The narrative-driven game set in a future where artificial intelligence and human greed bring Earth to the brink of collapse was given a preview at this month’s PlayStation State of Play that confirmed it’s coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

“I’ve dedicated my entire career to crafting captivating interactive entertainment to delight players,” Benzies said in a statement.

“With MindsEye, we’ve pushed cinematic adventure to the next level—building characters and a world that feels truly alive.”

The title was originally announced as part of Everywhere, an ambitious project by the Edinburgh-based studio to launch a game platform to rival the likes of Fortnite and Roblox.

But there has been no news on its release date after Hitman studio IO Interactive picked up publishing duties for MindsEye, now seemingly a standalone title.

Out and About – Yaldi Games

Those who care about the future of our planet but prefer a more relaxed approach to saving it and perhaps learning something in the process, Out and About might have the answer.

The Edinburgh-based Yaldi Games’ debut game invites players to relax and explore nature while gathering plants and mushrooms, cooking, crafting, and then selling their produce at the farmers market.

“The whole gameplay experience is all about exploring nature, connecting to the land, and learning more about plants and mushrooms,” explains Elena Höge, founder and CEO at Yaldi Games.

“And then learning about what you could do with them—making lots of yummy recipes, but also herbal remedies, from ice creams, cookies and bread to tinctures, salves, teas, and syrups.”

The inspiration for the game came from Elena self-learning foraging during the pandemic.

“I thought it was just so fascinating that I wanted to make a game about it, because in every other game, we always go around exploring, and we always go gather something.

“But often these are just fictional ingredients, or sometimes they use a real name, but they don’t look like the real plant.

“And so it’s not really like we’re actually learning something, and so I thought it would be great to make something that has value besides the game.”

Out and About is said to feature over 100 real plants and over 150 factual recipes, allowing players to pick up foraging skills, deepen their plant knowledge, explore herbal remedies, and even recreate recipes right in real life.

Scottish players can look forward to areas inspired by Holyrood Park and Portobello Beach, Scottish character, and other smaller ‘easter eggs’ with more local elements planned for full release and future DLCs.

The game already has a playable demo on Steam for players to try, with an early access release planned for spring this year.

“Our demo has been played over 40,000 times, and we heard a lot of positive feedback on how players love the colourful environments and the beautiful art style,” says Elena.

“We heard many times people saying, ‘oh, I didn’t even know what chamomile looked like; I just knew it from tea packaging’.

“And I really hope that the more people play, the more they will notice this hidden benefit of this real-life knowledge accompanying them on any kind of nature walk that they do or even nutritional questions they might face.”

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