Top 100 Women in Games: Emily Britt

Emily Britt,PR manager at The PokmonCompany and GamesAid chair, tells MCV about her career working with some of the most iconic titles in video game history

Tell us about your career in games.

I started as a localisation tester in QA at GT Interactive, testing Abe’s Odyssey and Abe’s Exodus.

It was a university summer job, and when I graduated in 1999 I realised I didn’t want to leave the games Industry, so I got a job at Konami as promotions co-ordinator, and went on to have the privilege of working on the marketing of some legendary titles: Metal Gear Solid, Pro Evolution Soccer, Silent Hill, to name a few.

What have been your biggest achievements?

My biggest achievement was being a tiny cog in the Tomb Raider reboot as the global PR lead.

There were several extremely talented women working on that project – most importantly the writer, Rhianna Pratchett – but the marketing and communications team also included some formidable women, like Sarah Hoeskma at Square Enix and Meagan Marie at Crystal Dynamics –and some equally formidable men, of course.

We worked hard and well together. It was great to be part of a team who were all facing in the same direction, with the same goals and objectives – which was to make a success of rebooting such a massive franchise for the history of video games.

What are you most proud of?

I’m proud to have worked with some many talented developers from around the world.

The creation of video games, from blockbuster to indie, is a true team effort with many creative people inputting their respective skills to make the game work.

I hope we can remember this as the sector becomes more atomised and widens its’ embrace to more and different types of gamers.

I’m also extremely proud have been nominated to follow in the formidable footsteps of Stuart Dinsey and to be the current chair of GamesAid.

What are your goals moving forward in games?

As chair of GamesAid I hope that the panel of trustees can build on the strong foundation laid since it was formed in 2007.

Last year was the most successful to date – in previous years the organisation has supported four or five charities, but in 2014 GamesAid distributed seven cheques, each for a whopping 62,571 each – the highest individual amounts ever raised.

That means a total of 438,000 was been raised in 2013 to 2014, bringing cumulative funds raised by the charity’s loyal supporters since it was established to upwards of 1.2 million.

We’re hoping we can better that for FY 2014 to 2015, and hoping to encourage more and more of those young, dynamic and creative people I mentioned before to sign up and support us. It’s really easy.