“We have a lot of women within the industry who run studios and pack a mean punch, the influence of women within the industry is pretty great, but we need to see that on the game design and programming side as well.

“It takes women working on games for games to change. I know there are all sort of discussions about where it is now and where it has been but I’m interested in where it’s going… particularly like the type of things we’re making at Media Molecule and lots of other studios are making, games which are for both genders and all ages.”

Reddy is currently working with BAFTA to help in spreading awareness and encouraging women to pursue careers in game development.

FIFA 14 producer Sebastian Enrique stated that “it is something we have talked about but there are no plans at the moment”. For the game to feature female players, “there are lots of things we would have to change though, like the physics would be different, it would affect collisions. There are lot of things that are involved”, which includes “new models and hair styles”.

Fernanda Schabarum started the petition, stating that FIFA is “one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time” but “none of the FIFA games has an option for women’s teams or female players”. She found that it didn’t make sense given how 47% of all players are women while “40% of soccer players in the US are girls”.

This isn’t the first time that a major developer refused to allow women in their games but times are quickly a’changing with even the Battlefield and Call of Duty series featuring female soldiers. Maybe next year perhaps for FIFA?

Speaking to the House of Commons, Onwurah stated that, “It is certainly the case that the video games industry is a modern one; one would hope that it would be reflective of society, including those who play games, but it is not.

“My figures show that only 6 per cent of those who work in ICT in the UK games industry are women, despite the fact that they make up 50 per cent of those who play the games.”

Rather hilariously (and sadly), two major companies that refused to provide information on their percentage of female employees on confidentiality grounds are Microsoft and Google.

“That is rather strange, because it suggests either that Google and Microsoft do not know how to aggregate and anonymity such information – which, given that they are leaders in big data management, is worrying – or that they have so few women employees that giving the figure would necessarily identify individuals. That is also very worrying.

“I am worried that Microsoft and Google, which are role models in their own right, do not appear to want to let anyone know how well – or how badly – they are doing.”

Onwurah spoke about doing more than just providing “mere warm words”. “As well as improving the image of ICT, we need to look at the working environment of women in ICT, and at higher, secondary and, very importantly, primary education, which my hon. Friend mentioned, and careers advice. We also need to look at our culture, which socializes girls to think that ICT is not for them.”

Source: GIBiz