Tiga: ‘Developers must work more with universities’

Speaking at the first keynote at the Develop Conference 2009’s Games/Edu strand, Tiga’s Richard Wilson has affirmed his belief that developers must work more closely with universities to improve the health of the UK’s game industry.

"In the games industry, we suffer from a large skills shortage in this country. A prime cause of these shortages is shortcomings in our education system," said Wilson, who also suggested that changeable government policy must also take some of the blame for the problems facing studios struggling with recruiting.

Wilson later added: "I do believe developers need to work more on their relationships with creating skills and training.

"We need to bring development and education closer together, and we still need to lobby government far more."

While his session focused on the challenges facing the relationships between universities and developers, Wilson also suggested more needs to be done at a primary and secondary education level to deal with the skills shortage problem.

"It is important to introduce younger children to the idea that they can begin to pursue a career in computer games," said Wilson.