First European unis sign up to receive PS4 dev kits

First wave of educational institutions on board to receive Sony’s new console
Five European universities have signed up to be among the first educational institutions to receive PlayStation 4 development kits.
Birmingham City University – Gamer Camp, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Abertay Dundee, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and Playground Squad in Sweden will all be incorporating PS4 development tools as key teaching elements within their games courses.
The partnership kicks off the first stage of SCEE’s plans to make PS4 hardware available to its university partners in 2014 as part of the PlayStation First licensing programme.
PS4 dev kits will be available as a follow-on licensing programme to university members registered on the PlayStation Vita dev kit programme. PlayStation First is currently seeking to hear from universities interested in PS Vita game development.
Interested parties should email PlayStation First: [email protected]
“We want the next generation of developers to have the skills that our industry needs. The next generation of PlayStation developers are in education right now, and getting students working on PS4 and PS Vita means we’ll have graduates who can hit the ground running when they enter our studios,” explained Luke Savage, academic development manager for SCEE.
Shahid Ahmad, senior business development manager at SCEE added: “Given that there are more developers than ever before, we want to intensify our outreach and support to this community. PlayStation First is at the forefront of bringing new developers to PlayStation. It’s student developers that will influence the future of video games on our platforms, and we’re delighted to support their growing ambitions.”
The release of PS4 development kits is the latest initiative of PlayStation First, which establishes partnerships with university courses to foster the “next generation of PlayStation-savvy developers”.
Sony Computer Entertainment has previously helped support universities by offering PS3 dev kits as well as working closely with local developer networks.
Earlier this year, Develop looked at how PS4 and Xbox One might affect games education.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/f...v-kits/0187249