Here are the winners of the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games Awards 2025

Last week in London we announced the winners of the MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games Awards 2025.

It was our pleasure, as usual, to celebrate the incredible women of this industry and all that they have accomplished in the last 12 months. With each passing year, the talent, resourcefulness and imagination of women in video games only continues to grow, and that’s despite the slew of challenges currently faced by the games industry itself. This year’s nominations were more impressive than ever, and we don’t say that lightly.

If you made an excellent nomination, were nominated yourself, or even just attended the event, thank you. Not just for supporting not just the awards, but for supporting each other all year round.

We’d also like to thank all of our sponsors at Airship, Amiqus, CCP, Code Wizards Group, Disobey, Dovetail Games, Fresh Seed, Green Man Gaming, Hestia Talent Partners, Keywords Studios, EA Playdemic, Quantic Lab, Screen Burn and XDS, as well as our event partners at Future Dreams House and Women In Games. Without the support of these companies and organisations, the 2025 iteration of the Women in Games Awards would not have been possible, and we don’t take that for granted.

The full list of 2025 MCV/DEVELOP Women in Games Awards winners is as follows:

Games Campaigner
Sarah McCue – Twitch

In-House HR and Recruitment Impact
Vikki Neale – nDreams

Development Impact
Khevna Shah – Playground Games

Journalism Impact
Rhiannon Bevan – The Gamer

Educational Impact
Joanne Muckley – Code Wizards

Career Mentor
Cassie Hughes – Nox Lumina

Creative Impact
Laura Gray – Party for Introverts

Business Impact
Claire Hunter-Gregson – Hasbro

Excellence in External Development
Deborah Kirkham – Side

Comms Impact
Becky Armstrong – Bethesda

Rising Star
MJ Lewis – Kepler Interactive

This year’s Outstanding Contribution award went to Ali Fearnley, who first joined the games industry in the mid-nineties, working on events like the computer games trade show – ECTS, and the consumer electronics exhibition.

More recently, she has spent the last 18 years helping to curate and create the Develop:Brighton conference, an event which has become a key date in the industry diary. Through her marketing acumen, the event has developed and grown, and now regularly attracts over 5000 attendees to Brighton each July.

During that time, she has also led on a number of key initiatives, and has been pivotal over the years in spearheading the event’s diversity programme in particular, to ensure that the voices of women and under-represented groups are fully recognised and given equal status.

In doing so she has been instrumental in creating an event that is fully inclusive for the whole industry, and one that makes everyone who attends better at what we do. Thank you, Ali!