Top 100 Women in Games: Fiona Sperry

Sperry started out in Publishing working for US giantMcGraw-Hill. In five years there she worked her way up from Publishing Assistant to Publisher.

Although I was managing over fifty Authors, I always felt a step removed from the creative process,” she says.

So in 1997 she contacted Malsara Thorn at Datascope Recruitment, where she was put forward for a producer role at Criterion Studios.

After producing two games, she was appointed studio director in 2000 and focused the company on console development as the first PS2 development kits arrived.

What excited me about the games business was realising the impact I could make,” she explains.

I started the Burnout series back in 2000 and never looked back. Over the last fourteen years the work of Criterion Games entertained tens of millions of players and that’s an amazing feeling. Under my watch our Metacritic average over eight titles, across two hardware generations, was 86.

"Ultimately, I was drawn to the fact that a small British team could take on the whole world and win.

"In the year we released Burnout 3: Takedown we won Game of the Year from both Official US PlayStation Magazine and Official US Xbox Magazine, beating both GTA San Andreas and Halo 2.”

She says she is most proud, however, of leaving behind these blockbusters and a stable job at EA to start an independent development company in March 2014: Three Fields Entertainment.

The rules of game publishing have really changed and I wanted to be at the forefront of those changes.

"The company is based on a few simple principles: make great games, have fun making them and do the right thing each and every day.”