The Royal Society of Edinburgh Part of the Talk Science @ Irvine Bay Programme
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh Part of the Talk Science @ Irvine Bay Programme The Rise and Rise of Video Games in Scotland Dr Chris van der Kuyl FRSE Kilwinning Academy, Kilwinning Wednesday 11 February 2015 Report by Kate Kennedy Chris van der Kuyl is the Chairman of 4J Studios, the developer behind Minecraft X360, the fastest selling and most successful Xbox Live game in history. He is a highly successful entrepreneur, whose expertise covers the entertainment, media and technology sectors. Chris is committed to growing the next generation of business people in Scotland by encouraging enterprise education in schools, colleges and universities. During this event, Chris focused on the rise of Scotland’s world-renowned games development sector, and explored how the gaming bug has gripped the global entertainment industry. Prior to the advent of home computers, scientists of the 1950s and ‘60s had invented huge computers the size of a school hall. They predicted that eventually there would be about eight computers in the world and, as they were so expensive, these would only be affordable to the biggest military and research institutes. The concept of a device with the capacity and ubiquity of the iPhone was beyond comprehension. As such, the video games industry has developed hugely in the last forty years. Since the early days of computer development, technologists have always played and invented games. One of the earliest recognisable games was Space Wars, similar to the very popular later Asteroids and Space Invaders games. In the 1970s, Nolan Bushnell founded the company Atari; the first major brand to deliver a home video gaming experience. Pong, a bat and ball game similar to virtual badminton, was one of the most popular games available. It was highly addictive and the many hours of playing left a ‘burned in’ imprint on the screens of old cathode ray televisions. Games such as these started an entertainment revolution and Dr van der Kuyl commented that “games are a very powerful medium; everyone can get hooked, whether it’s older people on Candy Crush or youngsters playing Minecraft”. Furthermore, Moore’s Law, the prediction made by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel in the 1970s, said that the density of silicon on a chip would double every two years, leading to exponentially reduced cost and increased power, thus ensuring that virtual reality and autonomous cars are no longer the stuff of science fiction. In the early 1980s, Sir Clive Sinclair’s company launched the ZX Spectrum; costing less than £150, it was the most affordable and accessible home computer available. This new device revolutionised the industry and Great Britain had the highest percentage of home computers in the world, outnumbering the USA by ten to one. The Spectrum was built in Dundee, the city where Dr van der Kuyl was born and educated. He described how the ubiquity of cheap factory seconds in Dundee meant that no one was excluded, and he and all his friends had several computers. Furthermore, the popularity of the Spectrum led to a generation of Dundee teenagers becoming excellent at computer programming. One way of playing computer games on the Spectrum was to type in computer code that was passed around amongst friends, and in doing this they learned to understand code, fix errors and make improvements. Dundee, historically the city of the three ‘J’s (jam, jute and journalism), now has a fourth J – joysticks. Many video games companies, still in existence today, originated through the development and selling of video games at Dundee computer clubs. One of these companies, DMA, achieved early success in 1991 when they developed the game Lemmings which became the biggest video game in the world, selling over 50 million copies on multiple formats. DMA also developed Grand Theft Auto which, today, is the biggest selling game in the world; the latest version, GTA 5, grossed $1.3 billion in its first week of release. Indeed, this one game makes more revenue than the global music industry. DMA is now part of the Rockstar franchise, a multinational games developer and publisher with studios located globally, including in Edinburgh. Dr van der Kuyl commented “the world’s biggest video game, in the world’s biggest entertainment industry is made in Scotland”. Following university, Dr van der Kuyl and his school friend and business partner, Paddy Burns, started their own games development business, VIS Entertainment; “when you see people you know, from similar backgrounds, becoming successful, it’s inspiring”. Starting out with a loan from the Princes Trust, the business developed to employ 200 staff in studios located in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Isle of Wight. They focused on 3D games, the most successful of which, State of Emergency was the world’s first riot game and became a global bestseller, published by Rockstar. Following the sale of VIS Entertainment to investors, Dr van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns formed their current company, 4J, focusing on working with excellent games developers on smaller, fun games. 4J were initially approached by Microsoft to make old Nintendo games for the Xbox format. Microsoft was also integral in introducing 4J to a Swedish developer, Markus Persson, creator of the Minecraft game. Prior to 4J’s involvement, Minecraft had sold about one million copies on the PC format. Markus Persson, also known as Notch, was initially a games programmer for King.com who made games he enjoyed in his spare time. As Minecraft increased in popularity, it became obvious to Notch that he would be unable to keep up with the demand and work full time for another company. He suggested to his online subscribers that, if they were to make a monetary donation for the game, he could cut down his hours with his current employer and focus more time on Minecraft. He raised enough money very quickly to give up his job and created his own company, Mojang. 4J made a deal with Mojang and took on the development of Minecraft for the Xbox format, on the basis that if the game sold a million copies then both companies would break even, but increased sales would result in much better revenues. 4J are now responsible for all Minecraft console editions, with multimillion sales that continue to increase. Additional skin and texture packs have led to sales of a further 21 million pieces of downloadable content. Dr van der Kuyl noted, “although Grand Theft Auto is the biggest game in terms of revenue, Minecraft is changing the video games industry, as it is more than just a game, it’s like digital Lego”. In late 2014, Notch sold Mojang to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. 4J will, however, continue to work with Microsoft on Minecraft development for console editions for the foreseeable future. Minecraft continues to sell more and more copies every month; which is unusual for video games, as popularity generally wanes after six months. The Minecraft online community is also integral to the game’s success. Stampy Longnose is a Minecraft character with a huge YouTube following; he creates daily ‘how to play Minecraft’ YouTube videos. Stampy approached 4J to help promote his videos when he had about ten thousand online subscribers and, after discussions with 4J, he created a video which 4J promoted via Twitter to huge success. Today, Stampy is the biggest children’s media celebrity in the world, with five million YouTube subscribers and 350 million views of his video content each month, making him the third biggest global YouTube star. Stampy, however, is not the only online character involved in an industry that didn’t exist on this scale five years ago. Indeed, Stampy has a sidekick from Irvine, Ayrshire called L for Leeeeee x. Dr van der Kuyl suggested that the online community is one of the reasons why the popularity of Minecraft has experienced such longevity; young people today watch videos on You Tube in the same way as TV was popular in earlier decades. Minecraft also publishes updates every six to eight weeks, meaning new content is regularly available. The video games industry today in Scotland is a huge business. What started on a small scale, with a few people making games for themselves and friends, has now grown to around one hundred development companies located in Scotland. Dundee continues to be a hub, but other towns and cities are also integral to the development of the industry. Dr van der Kuyl commented that the video games business is no longer just about “male geeks and programmers”; careers and jobs in the industry are varied and Minecraft itself has a 50/50 gender split. Furthermore, with its rich heritage in the technology, engineering and creative industries, Scotland is ideally placed to take full advantage of this major entertainment business. “Talent is vitally important for the industry, but games are a mixture of technical and creative spark…ideas are more important than access to money”. Dr van der Kuyl also noted that Scotland’s infamous inclement weather has also added to the country’s success in the video games industry, as people are more often inside working and playing on their computers rather than outside in the sunshine. This is also a factor in the high levels of productivity in northern Europe. Additionally, Scotland is generally embracing of immigration, something that Dr van der Kuyl believes to be vitally important if Scotland is to continue to attract the best talent from overseas in order to compete in a growing global industry. The Vote of Thanks was offered by Professor Roger Scrutton FRSE. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the RSE, nor of its Fellows The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, is Scottish Charity No.