It was perhaps inevitable that video games on mobile phones would become a lucrative industry, but back in 2010 – when the iPhone 4 battled for market share with BlackBerry and Nokia – few would have predicted it would become a $50 billion machine.
Credit must go to Douglas Hare, and his brother Richard, for seeing the scale of opportunity in an embryonic industry.
Relocating to Dundee from California, where the pair had built up one of the largest independent games developers on the west coast, was perhaps linked to a yearning for dreich weather in place of perpetually summer haze, but it has paid off.
Their new business, Outplay Entertainment, is now profitable and on course to double its revenue to £30 million. It has also made its first acquisition.
With more than 200 staff developing titles the company is yet another shining example of Scotland’s success in the games industry, which has spawned the likes of Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings.
Outplay's titles are downloaded by millions of people across the world, and the most curious aspect of this is that they do so for free.
The revenue model is based on what is called “in-app purchases” where players buy extras. The amount of money spent per player per day is a key metric for the industry.
That means games keep generating revenue for longer while the business develops new titles.
So with a growing portfolio and three new titles in the offing, it would seem that chief executive Douglas Hare's assertion than revenue could double this year is on target.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here