SMU's Guildhall awards game design degrees
by Tony Carnevale 
{ May 1st 2007 at 1:50PM }
The Guildhall, Southern Methodist University's video game design graduate program, has awarded the world's first master's degrees in video game development. Twenty-four graduates received "Master of Interactive Technology degrees" in "Digital Game Development" on March 24.Commencement speaker Randy Pitchford of Gearbox said, "The granting of advanced degrees from accredited universities is crucial to the future of our industry... You never know how important someone will become in time. Bill Gates was nobody [30] years ago." Gates probably shoudn't be the poster boy for higher education, since he dropped out of school to start Microsoft, but whatevs, right?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mythin @ May 1st 2007 1:56PM
So I guess a masters program from a game university doesn't count just because there isn't "video game" in the title of the degree?
http://digipen.edu/main/MSCS
aylera @ May 1st 2007 2:11PM
semantics.
C. Grant @ May 1st 2007 2:11PM
Digipen is a college, not an accredited university.
Philibob @ May 1st 2007 2:31PM
Some universities in the UK run masters degrees in game development. The University of Teesside runs one, as does Sheffield Hallam (I think).
Matthew Alexander @ May 1st 2007 2:32PM
Safe.. I go to SMU
Jay @ May 1st 2007 2:38PM
For the $20,000 per semester average that SMU charges for tuition, their education better live up to their accreditation.
mythin @ May 1st 2007 2:45PM
The article here doesn't specify college versus accredited university. It just says "world's first master's degrees in video game development."
Which is clearly false.
Max @ May 1st 2007 3:00PM
Nice, but too bad we at USC (http://interactive.usc.edu) have been doing this since 2005.
Or you know, it's not like Carnegie Mellon has a similar program. Or Parsons.
This post would be fine if it weren't so egregiously fallacious.
Or, hey, what about that PhD program at the IT University of Copenhagen... I'm sure Jesper Juul has a word or two to say about that.
ron jenkins @ May 2nd 2007 1:10PM
They are first to have one in video game development not just in fine art or programing. Many fine schools (USC, Carnegie Mellon) schools have degrees in interactive media, not in video game development. SMU is dedicated to creating professional game developers for the video game industry. That's why SMU has a 95 percent placement rate in the video game indsutry ... not in film, not in tv and they end up designing and developing video games!