The University of Sydney has launched Ludolio, a world-first digital gaming platform allowing school and university libraries to lend video games to students for learning and research. The innovative platform is now being rolled out to universities around Australia and the world, including Stanford University in the United States.
Created by academics in the Sydney Games and Play Lab, the platform hosts a library of video games freely available to students. At the University of Sydney, games are studied across multiple disciplines, including digital cultures, Library sciences, teacher education, design, and digital humanities.
Associate Professor Jen Scott Curwood, Director of the Sydney Games and Play Lab and Chief Learning Officer of Ludolio, said games are now a central cultural form – the global gaming industry is now double the film industry in revenue size – and research shows games can support learning, creativity and critical thinking.
The Ludolio creators (left to right): Dr Ben Egliston, Professor Marcus Carter, Associate Professor Jen Scott Curwood and Professor Eduardo Velloso. Photo: Stefanie Zingsheim / University of Sydney
50
automatic
LinkDespite the growing importance of games in culture and education, schools and universities have lacked the infrastructure needed to provide students with lawful, direct access to commercial games.
Most games are distributed through consumer platforms blocked by institutional IT systems or requiring individual purchase.
"Games are one of the most influential cultural industries in the world, and schools and universities need an innovative platform to readily integrate them into teaching and learning," Associate Professor Curwood said.
"If you’re studying film, the university provides access to films. If you’re studying literature, you can borrow books from the library. Games should be treated the same way. Students need to experience them first-hand, and educators need access to learning analytics to understand how students’ gameplay shapes their cognition."
Studying games at university
More than 1000 students are already using Ludolio at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, which subscribed to Ludolio this semester.
At Sydney, students across education, engineering and arts use the platform in five units, including Teaching English 2, Sustainable Design, Engineering and Management, and Games and Mixed Realities. At Melbourne, it is being used in Leisure, Play, and Gaming Cultures. Ludolio is also available to all students and academics at both universities.
Stanford University is among the first international institutions to adopt Ludolio, alongside the University of Utah and other US universities. The platform is targeting 10 institutions by the end of the year as its global rollout begins.
Dr Henry Lowood, a librarian, curator and games historian at Stanford University, said Ludolio addresses a challenge universities have faced for decade.
"I am thrilled to support Ludolio’s development as a games historian and curator who has wished for decades for a library-facing service offering ready, online access to games for pedagogy and research. Ludolio is the first big step towards a sustainable solution for putting game collections in front of our students and faculty," he said.
Developed by researchers and educators at the University of Sydney, Ludolio removes longstanding legal and technical barriers to using commercial video games in teaching and learning.
Ludolio is a world-first digital gaming platform allowing school and university libraries to lend video games to students for learning and research. Photo: University of Sydney
50
automatic
LinkGames and design at University of Sydney
Student Giselle Tuetuekin playing Mars First Logistics on the Ludolio platform in Fisher Library. Photo: University of Sydney
50
automatic
LinkGiselle Tuetuekin, a final-year Master of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts student at the University of Sydney, said she first discovered Ludolio through the student club Game Design Society, for student developers, artists, designers and gamers.
She said access to games through Ludolio changed the way she thought about game design.
"Using Ludolio made me feel, for the first time, that I could be both a player and a creator,” she said.
"As someone new to game design, discovering games I wouldn’t normally have come across has expanded my idea of what games can look like, what they can communicate and what they allow us to experience.
"When I first heard about the platform, I was impressed by how accessible it was. You can simply log in with your university email and borrow games through the library.
"Having that access gave me the space to explore different approaches to storytelling and design beyond theory alone. Ludolio definitely showed me how learning can be fun and engaging, and as a student, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to do so."
Bringing games into the classroom
Ludolio enables games to be accessed securely through institutional systems, removing the technical and equity barriers previously limiting their use in formal education. It also creates a new educational market for game developers.
"Ludolio gives game developers a way to monetise the educational potential of their games," said Professor Marcus Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Ludolio and a researcher in human-computer interaction, focusing on games, virtual reality and emerging technologies.
"We believe this will support the development of more games with potential in educational contexts."
More than 1,000 universities worldwide offer courses in game design.
"We aren’t just offering a games catalogue with future game developers in mind," said Dr Ben Egliston, Chief Officer of Games.
"Games are studied and taught right across a wide range of disciplines – the humanities and social sciences, education, engineering, and beyond. We're curating a library so that students and educators in each of those fields can find games that genuinely speak to how they teach and learn."
The platform launched at University of Sydney in 2026 with a curated starter collection of 20 games, such as the robotics-transport sim Mars First Logistics, puzzle-platformer Webbed and quantum-entanglement adventure Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar — titles chosen to reflect the range of opportunities for games to be more involved in education.
By 2027, the Ludolio catalogue is expected to expand to over 100 curated titles.
The Ludolio team launched the games platform in 2026 and the catalogue is expected to expand to over 100 curated titles. Photo: Stefanie Zingsheim / University of Sydney
50
automatic
LinkDeclaration
Ludolio Pty Ltd was founded by researchers from the University of Sydney’s Sydney Games and Play Lab, an interdisciplinary research group working across education, arts, engineering and design.
The research-led social impact venture has received funding and commercialisation support from the University of Sydney Commercialisation Office, and broader support from the Sydney Innovation and Enterprise ecosystem.
Media contact
Manual Name : Elissa Blake
Manual Description : Media and PR Advisor
Manual Address :
Manual Addition Info Title :
Manual Addition Info Content :
Profile image :
Manual Type : contact
_self
Auto Type : contact
Auto Addition Title :
Auto Addition Content :
Auto Name : true
Auto Position : true
Auto Profile image :
Auto Phone Number : false
Auto Mobile Number : true
Auto Email Address : true
Auto Address : false
UUID : 861ef23f-6d5e-422e-984e-8a05df9c7b78