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The founder of the Yard’s Games Shop in Arbroath has ambitious plans for the future.

Will Stephen has his sights set on the venue becoming the place in Scotland where players want to come for gaming first.

The businessman said: I started the company in 2018 and we moved into larger premises in the High Street last year which gave dedicated space for playing games.”

Asked if he had been confident of success. Will replied: “Retail is hard, especially in the climate now – there are no sure things.

“We’ve strived hard over the last year to build a community with social media, such as a discord group to get local people involved in playing events and interacting with each other.

“In that respect, we’ve already achieved the success I’ve always wanted for the shop.”

The businessman said Yard’s is quite unique in that it covers all manners of games.

“These include video games, trading cards and traditional table-top-style games.

“We do a lot of online sales with Magic The Gathering and Disney Lorcana trading card games, but also in video games we frequently sell old cartridges from the NES and Atari days, all the way to present day with PS5 and Xbox Series and Switch.”

Will said local events at Yard’s attract players from all around Angus, while bigger tournaments have had people coming from as far away as Ayr and Inverness.

He added that last year saw the biggest Scottish tournament for Magic The Gathering since Covid, with 63 players.

The shop’s Discord social media group now has nearly 400 members.

As regards expectations for the firm for the remainder of 2024, the games enthusiast said: “We want to be able to stay open longer by running events early evening.”

Will added that there was now less competition from other retailers these days as supermarkets had done away with new video games for the most part.

Wit the move to digital, we do see less pre-orders but there’s always demand for physical because if you hate a digital game you can’t return it – at least you can get some of your money back from doing a trade-in.

Asked about the biggest opportunities for Yard’s going forward, the businessman stated: “Working with gaming companies that want to showcase new board games or table-top games – having the space in the back gives us options to run LAN gaming events and more.”

The worldwide video game industry has been growing at an astonishing rate in recent years.

But you might be surprised to learn just how much money the sector is making in comparison to other entertainment industries.

According to one report, the global gaming market was valued at £123 billion in 2020.  This includes revenue from console games, PC games, mobile games and esports.

The means the gaming industry is making more than three times as much money as the music industry, and almost four times as much as the movie industry.

This article appeared in The Courier Business Supplement on 30 July 2024.