12 Oct Escape Technology’s Neil Parmar Talks Reselling and Scottish Games

As Scottish Games Week draws closer, we want to spotlight the generous sponsors who have made the event possible. We’ll kick this off by looking at Escape Technology, an associate sponsor of the event, and a long-time supporter of the games industry in Scotland. We sat down with their Account Director, Neil Parmar, to discuss who they are, what they do, and why they’re so excited to be a part of the inaugural Scottish Games Week.

The Great Escape

Founded in 2012, Escape Technology is a reseller that provides technical solutions to clients across the globe, in cutting-edge industries such as film and games. To end their description there, however, would be doing them a big disservice; beyond just selling tech products, Escape also provides tech expertise, with specialist consulting guiding clients towards the products that are right for them.

This is possible thanks to Escape’s unique company structure, which prioritises product expertise over sales ability. As Parmar puts it: “Most resellers won’t invest in knowledgable people over salespeople. We do sell, but we also invest in the team, with about 99% of us being ex-industry.”

This structure ensures that the people selling the products at Escape also know the products intimately, which makes it much easier to offer tailored advice to individual clients. “We as a business can talk to the artists, but we can also talk to the IT guy as well. We can get full dev teams in a room and act as a moderator between them, figuring out what products they need.” says Parmar. “Often when we go see a game studio who are looking for a specific product, we’ll say: Why? Why do you need that?”. It’s an unusual sales approach, but it’s one that leads into some important conversations about the workflow at different studios, and, ultimately, to a better outcome for the client.

This is all part of Escape’s larger business philosophy: “It’s not about selling licenses, it’s about selling our services and our knowledge.” It’s a line of thinking that helps them stand out from the reseller crowd, and also one that has led to their great success over the years; Escape now look after around 75% of the games companies in the UK, an impressive figure when you consider the rapid growth of the industry in the UK, and particularly in Scotland, in recent years.

Industrial Revolution

Pamar was keen to discuss this renaissance in Scottish games: “We had this dark hole in Scotland for a while where there was no real development going on, but now, all of a sudden, it’s a real player. Without a doubt, Scotland is the hotspot for gaming. There are a lot of mature studios there now.”

While this is certainly true, there are also many up-and-coming studios in Scotland as well, and Escape is just as keen to work with them as the big players. Part of their company philosophy is helping to nurture the games industry as a whole by supporting smaller companies during their humble beginnings: “We’ve seen that over the years with companies like Tag Games, which started out with just a handful of people, but is now massive. The game development community across the UK is an extension of us, as a family, and that’s how we treat it; We never really treat it as a client. From the two-man teams up to the triple A’s, we deliver the same level of service.”

It’s this passion for the game development scene in Scotland that has led Escape to sponsor the first-ever Scottish Games Week this month. As Pamar puts it: “We’re proud to support Scottish Games Week. We have a lot of clients in Scotland, and by supporting the event, we’re really demonstrating our support for the games industry, and for Scotland as well.”

You can learn more about Escape Technology on their website, and you can meet with some of their expert staff at the live Scottish Games Week events this month! Grab your tickets here if you haven’t already.