TO set the scene: 11.47pm on Tuesday. Location . . . the Pod nightclub, Dublin. Irish technology journalists are having another important discussion. "I'm telling you, MacGyver would easily beat all of the A-Team in a build-off, BA always needs a blowtorch and sheet metal before they can escape but all MacGyver needs is some tinfoil and a haircomb."

This week Halo 3 launched all over the world and for the special Irish launch, they brought over Richard Dean Anderson (aka MacGyver). Halo 3 is the latest blockbuster game from Microsoft exclusively for their X-Box 360 games console. There was already a large build-up to this event with thousands of expectant people on blogs and discussion forums discussing all the bells and whistles this game has.

When they announced Richard Dean Anderson you could see the Facebook profiles of Irish journalists change every day with their "Countdown to MacGyver".

The launch looks to have been the biggest games launch ever with more money invested in marketing it than most major Hollywood films and with good reason. Halo 3 could easily outdo The Simpsons and Transformers in sales if the hype is to be expected and so far it's looking well. Before the launch, it clocked up the largest number of preorders in videogame history and like a Harry Potter book launch, stores opened at midnight for people to buy the game. Thirty minutes past midnight on Wednesday and the streets in Dublin had a zombie-like army of kids with Halo 3 bags and a good deal of them were also carrying brand new X-Boxes. Most analysts believe the slowing sales of the X-Box 360 will quickly turn around just over this game.

Halo 3 is more advanced than today's blockbuster movie in terms of graphics and special effects and will immerse you in a world where you have full control of the landscape. There are probably weeks of playing before the game can be completed but there are so many variations and scenarios that it could be played for years without getting boring. This is the state of computer games in 2007, they are bigger, longer, and packed with more special effects than anything offered on the silver screen in the past few years. The innovation in special effects is happening in games first and movies second.

With Ireland only being outdone by Japan for the most computer games obsessed nation, Ireland could easily position itself and our well educated population to be the innovators in game technology. Already this year Irish gaming software companies Demonware and Havok were acquired by larger gaming companies for their technologies but in a few more years it might be Irish gaming companies creating games and taking over American companies.

Trinity College started a masters in computer games this year but game engineering should be taught in undergraduate classes and even in secondary schools. The future could be very bright for game and game technology development and software engineering graduates need to look forward to more than a future in a bank, monotonously writing loops of code that fling money from one database to another.

We know Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Neil Jordan. They're the current hot commodities in Hollywood and well known around the world. In terms of games the biggest name is Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Super Mario Brothers and Zelda.

However in the future will the great international Irish stars of entertainment be people like Dylan Collins and Hugh Reynolds, the people behind Demonware and Havok?