Sony UK's top executive urged the government to hurry up and add games into the national curriculum. Speaking before the Frontiers Conference in London today, Ray Maguire said "the time is right now to do it."
"We shouldn't wait too much longer. A collaborative effort is absolutely required, it needs endorsement at the highest level, it needs someone in government to say we will do this," he added.
Maguire says that he is concerned that the government's austerity measures coupled with the recession have the potential to slow down technological progress in schools. He believes that games can be used to fill gaps caused by some of these cuts.
"We are deflated after the cuts," he claimed, [but] "we're looking for relevant opportunities for students and the teachers."
He further argued that the "adoption of technology is constrained by how much we can spend. The delta is getting bigger, which is why we need to do this stuff relatively quickly."
Some of this, he says, can be achieved through public and private partnerships.
Maguire went on to say that Sony is actively talking with the government on a variety of industry-related topics such as bringing game design courses to universities, discussing tax credits, and other pro-industry discussions.
A full report on Maguire 's presence at the Frontiers Conference is available on GameIndustry.biz.
