Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Sheffield Hallam University have announced a new partnership that will allow students to create video games on the PlayStation 4.
Sheffield Hallam’s final-year undergraduates and postgraduates will be able to utilise the 34 PS4 development kits that the University has recently acquired from Sony’s academic development programme, PlayStation First.
“We’re helping Sheffield Hallam develop the next generation of video game talent succeed with PlayStation development,” says Dr. Maria Stukoff, head of PlayStation First.
“The new PS4 teaching laboratory is another example of how the University is leading the way in video games education.”
The PS4 workshop was officially opened by Sheffield-based studio Sumo Digital, developers of Sony’s LittleBigPlanet 3, and with the addition of this new facility to the University’s established PS3 and PS Vita laboratories, Sheffield Hallam is now the biggest PlayStation First institution in the world.
“Our students have been learning how to use SCEE’s cross-platform technology to make games for the PS3 and PS Vita for some years now,” said Dr. Jake Habgood, course leader for the MSc Game Software Development at Sheffield Hallam.
“PhyreEngine is a serious C++ game engine, and our final-year MComp students have already used it to create a PlayStation 4 version of our collaborative puzzler game Aspect, which we’re planning to release on the PlayStation Network in the New Year.”