Stafford Uni gets Epic Games Centre

Staffordshire University is now home to a new Epic Games Centre as part of a partnership between Epic Games and the institution which will see collaboration between the games company the university faculty and game design students.

"There's a lot of talk about the need for the industry to get more involved with the academic process and have a greater input into how games design is taught," said Mike Gamble, European territory manager at Epic Games.

"This collaboration will enable Staffs students to have a direct link with Epic and a direct line to the heart of the industry. In turn, Epic and its developer partners will have access to these world-class facilities along with a new generation of game makers totally immersed within the world of Unreal Engine technology."

The partnership is initially set for two years, and will see Epic staff offer their skills, software and hardware to the university, which currently offers eight different game design courses.

"We have many great courses here at Staffs but this partnership will give our students a deeper understanding of how theory is put into practice and a greater understanding of the commercial complexities of the development process," added the university's Dr Bobbie Fletcher.

"We've no doubt that this collaboration will make our courses more attractive to potential students and provide us all with a new dimension of awareness about how the industry works and evolves."