Sony Offers PS2, PSP Developer Kits to Colleges

I think most of you are missing the point here. Having just finished CS from a university that now offers a specialization in video game programming, I know first-hand how difficult it was for the school to get their hands on devkits. The point is that it was nearly impossible to get devkits from any of the major companies. This opens open the door for them.

This isn't Sony trying to get rid of "useless" devkits nor is it students getting devkits "free," causing aggravation to developers. These students are future developers, and if Sony can supply the tools necessary to teach them the skills they need, then the better for both of them. I'd like to see more of this from Microsoft (hardware devkits, not XNA) and Nintendo (they're so uptight).

The more of this stuff students can learn in school, the less they'll have to learn during their first years as a junior developers. This also indirectly encourages them to develop games for the platforms they know, giving Sony a potential unfair advantage. Similar to Microsoft giving students cheap/free access to their expensive software, so that they use it when they move on to real jobs.

I am somewhat bothered that they're not offering the PS3 devkit as well, since that's the bitch to program for. Seems like only the really big name schools get anything (like MIT).

Yeah this would be exciting news were it the PS3 DevKit and the Cell BE technology.

Anyone get the feeling that this is Sony saying, "The PSP and PS2 are virtually dead. Might as well make a PR event out of this and appear to be a benign company."

Headline should be: "Sony sells worthless devkits to Universities"

Its a brilliant way to offload devkits that developers don't want anymore. It'd be cool if they gave them away, but selling them? Come on.

Why a PS2 dev kit instead of a PS3 dev kit? As far as I know they aren't really very similar to develop for.

Screw this. XNA is so much better - and cheaper - for colleges and universities to use.