For Baglow, who worked on the original GTA and is now a leading voice in Scotland’s games industry, the continued success of the franchise shows the strength of the sector.
“The fact that not only has it achieved the success it has, but it’s still being made here in Scotland, should be seen and championed as our biggest cultural export ever,” he says.
Baglow says the biggest challenge facing developers today is not making games, but finding players.
With development tools becoming more widely available, more people and studios can create games than ever before, he says.
While this has made development easier, it has also made competition for audiences increasingly intense.
“The challenges facing developers is not making video games, it’s now user acquisition, as in finding players,” he says.
Baglow says studios can find themselves needing a major commercial hit to survive.
“That need for a breakout consumer hit, and if you don’t get it, it kills your studio,” he says.
However, Baglow says that the expertise built within game studios – including user engagement, digital design and 3D visualisation – could be applied in other industries, ranging from healthcare and education to financial services.
“Any sector that is struggling either to build engagement with a user, a consumer, a player, or needs to teach its staff and train its staff up, there’s a role for video games in all of that,” he says.
For Baglow, Scotland’s challenge is no longer proving it can create successful games, it is ensuring the industry has the investment and support needed to build on that success.