MIT and Singapore Announce New Game Lab

Big things happening at MIT. Their Comparative Media Studies program, headed up by humanities professor slash defender of video games Henry Jenkins (right), will team up with the Singapore Media Development Authority to create the Singapore-MIT International Game Lab.

From the release:

Beyond technology development, SMIGL will also conduct research on the artistic, creative, business and social aspects of games. The new initiative will also provide Singapore game researchers and professionals with access to cutting-edge technologies, the latest conceptual developments and links to international game development and research communities.

Why should we care? Because they're looking to create a "high-impact research program" that will result in the production of "publicly distributable digital games" -- not merely the usual hands-off academic approach to the medium, but a marriage of research and actual game design.

I'm going to follow up with Jenkins soon for a larger piece on new initiatives in education and game design, so hopefully he'll be able to share more details on this.