The arrival of “Grand Theft Auto VI” in 2026 will be less a video-game release than a cultural moment. The game, which rewards players for stealing cars, selling drugs and killing cops, will have cost upwards of $2bn to build. Yet it will almost certainly turn a profit within its first week. With its glitzy cityscapes, radio soundtrack and trademark swagger, the series looks, sounds and feels like a warped parody of America. Yet this blockbuster began its life in the small Scottish city of Dundee and is still made by a team of tartan nerds in Edinburgh—a feat celebrated in the British government’s strategy for the creative industries, released this June.
