Women in Games

28th May 2008.   Blitz Games Studios today announced its sponsorship and positioning as a key partner and supporter of the UK’s annual Women in Games (WiG) conference.   This year’s event, co-organised with Rare Ltd. will take place at Warwick University from the 10th-12th September.

As part of its sponsorship Blitz is providing a fabulous conference dinner at historic Warwick Castle on the night of 11th September for all attendees.

Kim Blake, Education Liaison Manager for Blitz commented, “We’re proud to be one of the trail-blazing developers working closely with academia to promote the industry to a wider range of potential recruits.  Teaming up with Women in Games is one of a number of initiatives that we have planned for this year and one that we feel particularly strongly about.  While we have a relatively high number of women at Blitz we are looking to increase that figure for ourselves and the industry as a whole.” 

Blitz Games Studios’ talented workforce employs 12% percent of women at its HQ in Leamington Spa across a variety of positions in game development as well as the more traditional HR/admin roles. 

Jane Sinclair, an organiser of Women in Games and Associate Professor at the University of Warwick added, “We’re delighted to have the support of Blitz as one of our key sponsors.  Women In Games continues to grow as a thought provoking and educational event for both the games industry and academia – we hope to announce an especially strong line up for this year very soon.”

The Women In Games conference encourages research and seeks to promote careers for women within the games industry. Making this career path attractive from a female perspective doesn't just make good business sense, it's vital both commercially and artistically.

A major theme of Women in Games 2008 is exploring ways of encouraging more women to enter games and increase their prominence across the industry, ultimately demonstrating how the female perspective can provide a rich new angle on the gaming experience. Other themes will focus on the latest game research with a particular emphasis on areas that affect, or are affected by, women.

Men are welcome too! Although this conference is concerned with women and games please note that men are also very welcome to attend. The industry needs a meaningful dialogue between the sexes as it moves forward.

For further information, to submit a paper or an idea for a session and to register please visit:  http://www.womeningames.com/

For further information please contact:  Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR.  Tel:  +44 (0) 1608 645756  M:  +44 (0) 7966 449130

E:  Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk

About Blitz Games Studios:

Award-winning Blitz Games Studios is based in Leamington Spa, UK and was founded in 1990 by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver.  The company is now one of the largest independent video games developers in the world, boasting five distinctly different divisions. The Olivers are responsible for developing over 100 games since the early 1980s and their company is currently working under signed contracts on top secret PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii mature titles, multiple casual games and ground-breaking serious games in addition to the high-profile licensed family games for which the company has historically been well-known. The company recently released one of the most successful branded games promotions of all time with the three games developed for Burger King selling well over 3.2 million copies in less than 8 weeks across the US and winning the advertising industry’s top Golden Clio award. The company continues its huge long-term investment into BlitzTech, its in-house technology, which provides one of the best game development environments of any independent developer in the world for PlayStation®2, PlayStation®3, PlayStation®Portable, PSN, Nintendo Wii®,  Nintendo®DS, WiiWare® Xbox 360, XBLA and PC.  www.BlitzGamesStudios.com

About Rare Ltd:

Over the last two decades Rare has grown from its humble UK beginnings to acquire an international reputation for producing great games, with classics from Donkey Kong Country through GoldenEye to Viva Piñata™ under its belt. The company is based in a custom-built rural HQ in the heart of the English countryside, just outside the village of Twycross.

Acquired by Microsoft Game Studios in 2002, Rare has since focused on broadening the demographic of the Xbox brand with its trademark family-friendly titles, while also bringing to bear the full weight of major franchises such as Conker, Banjo-Kazooie® and Perfect Dark®. Rare's most recent success story is critically acclaimed Xbox 360 title Viva Piñata™, following 2005's dual launch of Perfect Dark Zero™ and Kameo™: Elements of Power™ alongside the Xbox 360 system itself. 2008 is set to be one of the biggest years in Rare's history: the hugely anticipated new game in the Banjo-Kazooie® series is just one of many exciting projects in the pipeline.