EA’s Moore: Gamergate has helped industry diversity

EA COO Peter Moore has spoken openly about the representation and treatment of women in the games industry.

In an interview with Fortune, Moore praised what he perceives as the increasing number of opportunities for female developers.

EA itself now counts former Naughty Dog alumna Amy Hennig among its ranks at Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline studio Visceral Games, joining DICE producers Sara Jansson and Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, plus former Ubisoft veteran and Assassin’s Creed creator Jade Raymond, who is leading newly-founded outlet Motive.

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

Moore also took a moment to discuss the impact of hotly-debated movement GamerGate, often derided for its aggressive treatment of female developers and games industry members.

We all need to step back sometimes and think about the environments we create for our people, the opportunities we create for people internally, and equally importantly how you bring new blood into the company,” he continued. It can’t all be white males. 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.”