John Bustard of Sony outlines the future direction of computer gaming to UU students

Computer gaming enthusiasts will be able to compete against each other on wireless hand-held consoles from any location in the world in the future, students at the University of Ulster have heard.

John Bustard, a games designer and developer with computer giants, Sony, said wireless technology holds the key to further developments in the industry.

This will allow players to compete against each other at any time from any location. Instead of inviting friends around to their home to compete against each other, players will be able to take on opponents from throughout the world from their wireless consoles.

Mr Bustard, whose father Professor David Bustard is Head of the School of Computing and Information Engineering at UU’s Coleraine campus, was speaking at an event organised by the UUC Computer Games Society. He works as a product innovator at Sony’s acclaimed Cambridge Games Studio and he was a senior member on the team that created the launch game ‘MediEvil: Resurrection’ for the new Sony PlayStation Portable.

The event, attended by UUC students and local schools, was the first in a programme of activities to celebrate the launch of the new BSc Computing (Digital Games Development) course at the Coleraine site. 

The course is designed to combine the core elements of a traditional computing degree with the specialist skills in programming, graphics and multimedia for a career in the fast growing computer games industry.

Dr Darryl Charles, lecturer in Games at Coleraine, said “With the recent launch of the Playstation Portable, and with Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on the horizon, 2006 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet for the games industry. Games development is already one of the major growth areas in computing in the UK and Ireland, and this exciting new course aims to put Coleraine at the centre of the Northern Ireland games community. 

 “This course will provide a pathway into the games industry or into post graduate research. We have three PhD students currently working on games related research. In many ways gaming is one of the pinnacles of the computing industry and it is estimated that the sector will be worth around $40bn by 2008.”

Next month students will hear from Tony Kelly, a senior producer at Donegal-based games company, Torc Interactive, about the career opportunities in the industry.

For further information on the Games course at Coleraine, contact Dr Darryl Charles on 028 7032 4582 or by email at dk.charles@ulster.ac.uk  You can also get more information from the Games@Coleraine website at http://games.infc.ulst.ac.uk.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young