WPI officially lands MassDiGI gaming center

Photo | Grant Welker Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Write a Comment

Worcester Polytechnic Institute will take over the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute after Becker College, MassDiGI's host, closes following the end of the spring semester.

WPI previously offered to host the video game center when Becker announced in late March it would close its doors because of financial difficulties. That was made official in an announcement at the center on Monday.

Timothy Loew, the MassDiGI founder and executive director, called the institute and WPI a perfect match. Like Becker, WPI, located only a few blocks away, has an internationally renown video game design program, which started in 2004 as one of the first such undergraduate degree programs in game design.

Becker's similar esports program, which also gave the small school notoriety far beyond Worcester, isn't going with MassDiGI. Instead, Clark University said in March it reached an agreement to create the Becker School of Design & Technology at Clark to include Becker’s interactive media design program, as well as its esports management and integrated graphic design programs.

Other colleges have signed student transfer agreements to help Becker students more easily continue their education elsewhere for the fall, including Assumption University in Worcester, Dean College in Franklin, Fitchburg State University, Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, and Worcester State University.

WPI, which also set up a transfer agreement, announced with MassDiGI on Monday that it would host the program at an event coinciding with the center's 10th anniversary. The move from Becker's Colleen Barrett Center to WPI will take place this summer. Monday's event included an announcement that the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative would create a $100,000 grant program to match private-sector investment in MassDiGI's Summer Innovation Program Extension.

MassDiGI serves as an incubator for video game startups and those looking to find entrepreneurship opportunities with one another in the industry. It helped launch Petricore Games, for example, a six-year old video game design firm in Worcester founded by Becker graduate Ryan Canuel.