Five women to watch out for in the video games industry
Irish conductor and composer Eímear Noone. . Picture: Steve Humphreys
Gaming has a short history, in the grand scheme of things. Female pioneers in the industry have an even shorter history. But that is changing. At the start of Women’s History Month, here are some notable women leaders in gaming.
Let’s start with the real deal. Se-Yeon Kim, also known as ‘Geguri’, signed with the Shanghai Dragons Overwatch team in 2018, making her the first professional female Overwatch player. That’s not all – she’s so good that players accused her of using cheat software to aim. This was disproven, and Geguri just kept taking people down as an exceptional ‘tank’ player. Geguri has since left Shanghai Dragons but still plays the game.
Noone has featured on many of our lists before, as one of Ireland’s hidden pioneers in the gaming industry. She has composed music for World of Warcraft, Starcraft and been a pioneer of live orchestral performances of video game music all over the world, including here in Ireland. She worked on a 25th anniversary album for The Legend of Zelda, remarking that the theme of Wind Waker "totally sounds like Irish music to me" and “I used to play in a traditional Irish band, so … the theme had found exactly the right person to play it.”
Perhaps the time is coming to take Raymond off this list, but she warrants her place for being a pioneer of the modern generation. Her work as Producer on the Assassin’s Creed series shaped the open world genre like no other modern title, and she has worked in leadership roles for EA, Ubisoft and most recently Google’s gaming division. However, her involvement with Google’s streaming service Stadia will be seen as a stumble and it’s been almost ten years since she produced a notable game.
Bonnie Ross not only leads one of Microsoft’s most important gaming studios – she founded it. That might not seem like such a big deal, until you realise that 343 Industries are the team that make Halo, one of the biggest franchises in gaming. Although 343 didn’t create Halo (that honour goes to Bungie) they have developed all the most recent games in the series and will release Halo Infinite later this year as one of 2021’s biggest titles.
When it comes to making your work your passion, Dalton seems to have it made. Not only is Dalton the founder of PMS Clan Inc, a female competitive gaming clan which was once the largest clan on Xbox Live, she currently works for gaming platform Twitch managing their sales and sponsorship work. That’s how you do it.
