University of Teesside launches National Centre for Computer Games

The University of Teesside has established the National Centre for Computer Games to support the UK games industry and carry out pioneering research and development into this enormously popular field of entertainment.

The new initiative will build on the University’s expertise and its two specialist computer games courses. The Centre will include a Games Vault - a collection of hardware, publications and games from early classics such as Tennis and Breakout to the newest games for consoles such as the Playstation 2. The Games Vault will be available to academics, companies and members of the public.

Matthew Holton, Head of Visualisation Section of the School of Computing and Mathematics, said: “With the National Centre for Computer Games, the University of Teesside will play a key role in encouraging the next generation of games designers to achieve new levels of technical sophistication and game-playing art.

“The last ten years have seen huge advances in gaming technology and what was once regarded only as a child’s pastime has become a legitimate adult activity, with more realism, improved graphics and better playability demanded from every new game. They have quickly become a hugely influential part of popular culture and the buying market has changed to include older people and more women. Computer games have become so popular that it’s easy to forget that they have only been around for about 25 years.”

The University of Teesside is the perfect place to incorporate the National Centre for Computer Games. With the country’s fastest growing computer games courses, the University has approximately 1,000 students on programmes such as BA (Hons) Computer Games Design and BSc (Hons) Computer Games Programming, computer animation, virtual reality and multi-media.

For further information on the National Centre for Computer Games or computer games courses at the University of Teesside, contact Matthew Holton on 01642 342600, email m.holton@tees.ac.uk, or Carol Cooke, Head of Centre for Digital Arts and Media on 01642 384422, email carol.cooke@tees.ac.uk

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