Are you an Australian university student thinking about breaking into the video game development industry? If so, you may be interested in knowing that Sony Computer Entertainment Australia have today launched the Playstation First Academic Partnership Programme. Playstation First is a worldwide SCE program designed to inspire innovation across the suite of Playstation platforms via partnerships with higher education organizations which they deem to be “at the cutting edge of development and research“.
The company have selected the first participant, which is the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, which as an educator for Computer Game Development and 3D Digital Arts Industries, will net them not only the status but six Playstation Vita development kits for its students, and more specifically Playstation game development as part of their syllabus. These kits will be rolled out over each their Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne campuses, offering all students attending these campuses the opportunity to learn, create and innovate using the Playstation Vita platform. It is unknown if kits for the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 platforms will be rolled out at a later date, as I am sure students would also be eager to develop for these platforms given their even large install base amongst the Australian and world consumers.
Dr Maria Stukoff | Head of Academic Development for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
PlayStation First is about integrating the latest PlayStation developer kits into the curriculum to ensure students have cutting edge industry tools. Our first academic partnership in Australia, with the AIE, allows us to foster the next generation of game developers and to support the wider video games industry in this country.
Neil Boyd Director of Business Development and Marketing at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment
The opportunity to work with the PlayStation suite of platforms ensures our students are getting industry relevant skills to step confidently into the video game development sector. The students are eagerly anticipating the access they will get to this leading platform, and having it built into the heart of their curriculum really adds to the possibilities for their future careers.
While unconfirmed, with any luck I hope to see them roll this program out to even more Universities and other higher education institutions. Just from mates and contacts within the academic environment, there is a huge yet to be tapped potential from the developers of tomorrow – and it would be a shame to not have these tools made available to everyone.
