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| ITI Techmedia To Create Platform For Online Games ITI Techmedia announced its latest R&D programme which aims to establish a world-class development platform to facilitate the efficient production and distribution of online PC, console and hand-held games. ITI Techmedia, the organisation which develops market-driven intellectual property for the benefit of the Scottish economy, is set to create a suite of integrated tools and middleware to address some of the key issues associated with online game development. The programme will investigate and address the requirements of game developers in the key elements of online game design such as story creation, digital asset management, digital property management and workflow. In North America and Europe alone the online games market is currently estimated to be worth $1.5bn, and this is expected to double to $3bn by 2010. The fourth R&D programme in the ITI Techmedia portfolio, it is expected to last for three years and will involve an investment of ?5.35m. This brings the ITI's total investment to date to just over ?19m and further adds to the diversity of programmes already underway. ITI Techmedia's programme portfolio already includes activities in Games-Based Learning, Machine-Readable Security Tagging and Ultra-wideband Communications. Access to a sophisticated toolset will mean that games can be put together more easily and predictably, reducing development time and costs, leaving developers to focus on the more creative, and lucrative, side of game development: design and playability. ITI Techmedia will engage the services of a number of R&D providers over the lifetime of the programme, including Games Investor Consulting, Slam Games, Operations Management Research (OMR), Teleca and British Internet Broadcasting Company (BiBC). These organisations will carry out the initial work required in the research and system design phase of the programme. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Game News :: home page |