Autodesk makes game dev tools free to schools, students worldwide

This week, Autodesk made a host of tools free to educators and students, inclduing popular 3D modeling software packages 3ds Max and Maya. In particular, secondary school students have access to a wide swath of the company's tools (across both desktop and mobile) at no charge. To find out what's available to you (whether you're a student or an educator) you can visit the company's site. "By providing free professional design tools to students, faculty members and academic institutions around the world, we're helping get industry ready for the next phase," Autodesk CEO Carl Bass said in a statement. The obvious benefit for Autodesk is that once students train on its software, they will continue to want to use it. Of course, many of the company's tools are already prevalent in both professional game development and educational settings. This is a global extension of a U.S.-centric program Autodesk began to undertake earlier this year, and now covers students in the Asia Pacific and European regions.