How a redundant factory worker from Dundee transformed the global video game industry forever

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: After losing his job at a Timex factory in 1987, David Scott Jones invested his severance pay into an Amiga 1000. This humble start launched a career that redefined interactive entertainment, leading to the creation of iconic franchises like Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, which fundamentally altered how we play.

Born in Dundee in October 1965, David Scott Jones began his professional journey by forming DMA Design with friends Russell Kay, Steve Hammond, and Mike Dailly. Their debut title, Menace, released in 1988, sold 15,000 units and provided the capital for further expansion. The studio achieved massive success with the 1991 release of Lemmings, which sold over 2 million copies in two years and secured the European Game of the Year award twice. This early momentum established Jones as a significant figure in the burgeoning Scottish game development scene.

Jones later pivoted toward ambitious urban simulations. While working at DMA Design, he evolved a fighting simulator concept into the groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto. The game, which blended a living city environment with driving mechanics, became a massive franchise. Interestingly, Jones later noted that the intense public controversy surrounding the series was a calculated strategy orchestrated by publicist Max Clifford. Following the release of Grand Theft Auto 2 in 1999, Jones departed the studio, which had by then been absorbed into the entity now known as Rockstar North.

His subsequent career was marked by both innovation and volatility. He founded Realtime Worlds in 2002, developing the Crackdown series and the ambitious massively multiplayer online game APB: All Points Bulletin. Despite securing $100 million in funding, the company entered liquidation in 2010 following the poor reception of APB. Undeterred, Jones continued to explore new frontiers in technology, co-founding Cloudgine in 2012 to focus on cloud computing. His work eventually caught the attention of industry giants, leading to Cloudgine's acquisition by Epic Games in 2017, where Jones transitioned into a strategic role focused on cloud infrastructure.

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