News that the DCSF helped to develop Buzz! The Schools Quiz came as a surprise to many in the educational IT community.

The idea for the game, which has been designed for the Sony PlayStation, came from a meeting in 2005 between staff from Brighton-based Relentless Games and Adrian Hall, who at the time was working for the DfES and is now Director of Mobile Learning at Steljes.

According to the press release, Buzz! was developed, ‘in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills’. This is unusual as the DCSF claims it doesn’t endorse or work specifically with any private sector software or content development companies to help them develop their products.


In reality Buzz! for the education market is an adaptation (albeit a very good one) of Buzz!™ The Music Quiz and Buzz!™ The BIG Quiz. Buzz! contains 5,000 questions written for Key Stage 2 participants. Sony was also involved in the project and obviously now sees education, both at school and at home, as lucrative for selling both software and their PlayStation and PSP consoles.

www.relentless.co.uk