EA COO talks the necessity of women in the game industry

Electronic Arts’ Chief Operating Officer, Peter Moore, has explained how important he believes it is to include more women as key figures in the game industry.

“We’ve gone from the personification of what we believe women should look like in a video game,” Moore explained in an interview with Fortune, “to actually involving women in making video games, to today where at Electronic Arts we have some of our most powerful franchises overseen by women who manage hundreds of men.”

Some of the women Moore is referring to include Amy Hennig, who is currently heading creative direction on Visceral Games’ upcoming Star Wars game, Jade Raymond, who heads EA’s Motive Studios, and Sara Jensen, executive producer of the upcoming game Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst.  He also goes on to say that “a good 40%” of the team working on The Sims are female.

Moore explains that since joining the game industry in 1999, he has seen an incredible growth in the amount of women working for the company in key roles, citing the “Gamergate” controversy for opening eyes to gaming’s gender issues.

“It can’t all be white males,” Moore said. “As a result, I think that hiring managers at EA over the last couple of years have had a sharper focus on diversity. I know that my teams around the world have. If there’s been any benefit to Gamergate, whatever Gamergate is, I think it just makes us think twice at times.”

Moore joined EA as the head of its sports division in 2007, after working for Microsoft and being the president of SEGA of America.  He signed on as COO in August of 2011.

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