Why Outplay moved from California to Scotland

Scotland: The perfect location for tech talent

When Richard and Douglas Hare decided to create a new company to develop games for mobile and social network platforms, the brothers were based in California. But when it came to finding a base for their new company, they quickly realised that Scotland was the perfect location.

An existing relationship with our staff helped the brothers explore all that Scotland has to offer companies in the games industry - and that led them to bring Outplay Entertainment to Dundee in 2011.

Douglas Hare, CEO of Outplay, said: "We made the decision it was going to be perfect for us to locate the company here.

"It was very important for us that we were going to be able to go to a place that was, on a tech basis, world-class."

And by locating to Dundee, Outplay would have access to Scotland's tech and gaming talent. 

"Most important for a business like us is available talent, being able to go in and rather than having to build talent out of nowhere, know there is a great level of experience and expertise," said Douglas.

"There were really very few places in the world that had experience doing social network games or mobile games, both of which were being done in Dundee."

From Dundee to the world

From its Dundee base, Outplay has been able to connect with partners across the world and become part of a global phenomenon. 

"The company has eight games live in the market right now. Some of the bigger known ones will be Angry Birds Pop. It's a game that we did in collaboration with the Finnish company Rovio.

"Angry Birds is a global phenomenon that's been downloaded over three billion times worldwide. It's probably one of the best know franchises in the world."

Dundee remains the company's main base, and Outplay has grown from its two founders to a team of 155 staff. It's now Scotland's largest independent mobile developer, having released 13 titles which have been downloaded nearly 60 million times. 

Not only that, but Outplay was named Scotland's fastest-growing tech company in Deloitte's 2017 UK Technology Fast 50 Awards. The company has posted revenue growth of 1,094% over the past four years, placing it 11th in the overall UK table.

Expansion plans

Outplay is clearly heading for big things, and thanks to the skills and experience available across the country, Scotland offers the perfect location for further expansion. 

"If the company became so successful that it required further growth, there's Glasgow, there's Edinburgh, there's lots of places in Scotland that we could open another location and start tapping the talent there," Douglas said.