New ‘Games & Immersive Media’ Program at Hochschule Furtwangen Boosts Business Innovation
Hochschule Furtwangen's new gaming program highlights gaming expertise as a key competitive advantage across industries, fostering innovation through education and industry collaboration.
- • Hochschule Furtwangen launches 'Games & Immersive Media' program blending technical and creative gaming skills.
- • Two-thirds of job postings requiring gaming expertise are outside the gaming industry, showing broad demand.
- • Program set to switch from bilingual to 100% English instruction for international appeal.
- • Event emphasized collaboration between academia and various companies including Bosch and Black Forest Games.
Key details
A networking event held on October 14, 2025, at Hochschule Furtwangen brought together representatives from politics, business, and academia to spotlight the strategic advantages of gaming principles and technologies for business development. The event highlighted the newly launched degree program 'Games & Immersive Media,' which combines technical skills and creative thinking to prepare students for immersive game development and cross-industry applications.
Professor Jirka Dell’Oro-Friedl, the program’s initiator, presented data showing that by 2024, two-thirds of online job postings seeking gaming expertise came from sectors outside traditional gaming, such as automotive displays and medical training systems. This underscores gaming's growing relevance as a competitive advantage across various industries. Participants from notable organizations including IHK, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, SWR, MackMedia, Black Forest Games, Gameforge AG, and Bosch engaged in discussions on the curriculum and proposed additional topics.
The program, currently bilingual, plans to shift to fully English instruction to attract more international students and foster closer collaborations with regional businesses for internships, theses, and research. Workshops focus on visual design, coding, sound, theory, and business, giving students comprehensive, practical experience. Attendees, including state parliament media policy spokesperson Catherine Kern, praised the industry-academic collaboration and emphasized gaming’s potential as a driver of innovation and creativity, particularly benefiting rural areas of Baden-Württemberg.
This educational initiative exemplifies how integrating gaming knowledge can serve as a catalyst for business innovation beyond entertainment, supporting regional economic growth and workforce development.