Microsoft executive: educational games bad for business

Neil Thompson, Microsoft's Senior Regional Director of the Entertainment & Devices Division in Northern Europe, claims game developers shouldn't attempt to create games with specific educational value. He says that although titles such as Brain Training are both informative and fun, it's a bad idea to combine education and entertainment as it might be bad for business:

"We're in the business of producing fun, not education," offered Thompson. "It so happens that certain products we produce have educational value. We're in the business of creating fun entertainment and the moment we try to pretend we're in the business of education we've crossed the line and it's dangerous for us as a company and as an industry.

"We've got to concentrate on producing great quality commercial products that will sell, because it costs too much money to get that wrong," he added.

Thompson said he does acknowledge that games can be used in education, but it is not the job of the industry to push an agenda, rather let the government and educational systems figure out how to use videogames in classrooms.

"Educators and government should understand what great education is in order to look at the products we produce and ask can they be used in different scenarios that can benefit children in their educational process?

More info at GamesIndustry.biz.