The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Minecraft pioneer hails ‘visionary’ venue as big draw for events to city
The development of an esports arena in Dundee is “visionary” and will benefit the whole city, the man responsible for the global success of Minecraft has claimed.
Scotland’s foremost digital entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl has given his full support to the plans to develop the arena beside Slessor Gardens.
“When the V&A opened I said this was just the start and we needed the next project to take the city forwards,” he said.
“We all want to hear more detailed plans, but this looks like something that will generate real interest and bring people and fantastic events to the city.
“I dreamed and hoped it would be something like a technology enabled multi-purpose venue what would be different and unique in Dundee.
“In a year when we’ve seen technology adopted years ahead of when people thought it would be, I think this is a timely in every sense.
“It’s really visionary and it is also visionary of the city council to get behind it at this stage.”
Mr van der Kuyl is co-founder and chairman of Dundee-based 4J Studios, which is largely behind the global success of Minecraft, the world’s most popular computer game.
He said esports will continue to be a growing industry and is excited by Dundee being at the forefront of its development in the UK.
He said it would also benefit the city’s well-established games community.
“This could be one of the first esports venues to become a reality and it’s also good to see the relation to academia because esports will continue to be huge.
“The point is that whatever happens in the future, connecting technology to events space like this is going to be massive, and designing the tech in from the start gives Dundee a massive opportunity to capitalise.
“Dundee constantly and rightly makes a claim to be one of the world’s best games development hubs. Having one of the first fantastic purpose-built venues for esports and mass digital streaming only adds to that credibility and it’s all part of the ecosystem.
“I’m sure having this here would lead to more exciting developments in the city in the games world.”
He said Dundee’s digital sector will be very welcoming and ready to help as partners where it is needed.
Mr van der Kuyl said the project will require “the Rolls Royce” of broadband infrastructure which will benefit the entire city.
“This will need enormous capacity built in and it will be possible to bring that to Dundee.
“When you are playing esports, the time from when you press a button to something happening has to be as instant as it can be.
“That means we will have the absolute Rolls Royce of broadband connections to the waterfront in Dundee and the city in general.
“By being at the leading edge of that the local business community and residents in the city will benefit.”