UK games industry launch campaign to donate computers to schools

In response to the pandemic and the increasing demand for educational devices in schools, Ukie (a trade association representing the UK games industry) today launched a new campaign encouraging companies to donate old laptops and computers to schools in need.

Ukie's "Devices For All" campaign wants UK video game companies to support their pledge, which aims to provide students and families across the UK with laptops, computers, and any other educational devices they need over the next few years.

"There's a need right now for devices in schools across the UK, but the digital divide is huge, existed before the pandemic and requires real, long-term solutions," said Shahneila Saeed, head of education at Ukie and director of the Digital Schoolhouse national education programme.

The founding partners of the initiative are: Aardvark Swift, Creative Assembly, Co-operative Innovations, Curve Digital, Games Jobs Direct, Hi-Rez Studios, Nintendo, OPM Jobs, Polystream, Sports Interactive, Team17, and Ustwo Games. A number of companies have already signed up to the campaign as well, including Nintendo, Sega, nDreams, and Kuato Studios.

While this is undeniably a great thing that's going on here, it's easy to forget the underlying cause. A lack of funding for schools has been a problem for years, and yes, it's been exacerbated by the pandemic, but should this inequality have existed in the first place? Still, this is a nice campaign and hopefully it'll do some good.