MCV’s 30 Under 30 2012

Want to know who the video games industry’s hottest young talents are? Look no further.

MCV provides its annual guide to some of the UK’s brightest young rising stars from publishing, the media, distribution, retail and more.

Tom Goldberger
Age: 28
UK Mobile PR Manager, Electronic Arts

Goldberger has worked at EA since March 2010, first serving as publicist for the publisher’s shooters. He was key in getting Battlefield 3 featured at The Gadget Show and arranging for tanks to invade Oxford Street when the game launched. He has also helped launch recent Need for Speed entries Hot Pursuit and The Run, as well as EA partner titles. As of this month, he now looks after the company’s growing mobile games portfolio.

Daniel Krupa

Age: 25
Games Writer, IGN UK

Primarily responsible for games reviews, Krupa has quickly made a name for himself in his first 18 months at IGN. His reviews of titles such as Max Payne 3 and FIFA 13 have racked up in excess of 1.5m views on IGN.com, and other features – such as a FIFA 13 Livestream with England star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – have been well received. Krupa even put his body on the line in the name of games journalism, suffering multiple leg fractures after a sliding tackle went wrong during an EA press event.

Hollie Bennett
Age: 25
Consumer and Community PR Executive, Namco Bandai

Bennett has only been in PR for a year, but has already won over countless peers and consumers with her passion for all things gaming. She has found imaginative ways to get Namco Bandai’s community involved, drawing from the direct-to-consumer experience gained from her time at Destructoid. Bennett has greatly increased the publisher’s community presence, spreading the word about its upcoming games to not only UK gamers, but others around the world. Also, she has nice hair,” one contributor added.

Sarah Stallard
Age: 28
District Development Manager – Bullring, GAME

Stallard began her career at GAME in 2006 as senior sales assistant, and has since helped develop one of the chain’s flagship stores. She helped turn the underperforming Birmingham Bullring outfit into one of the chain’s Top Five in terms of turnover. She was named both Manager of the Year and Pre-owned Manager of the Year in her region last year. Stallard even helped accommodate staff that lost their jobs when GAME entered administration back in March.

James Dance

Age: 26
Director, Loading

Two years ago, Loading was a largely unknown independent gaming caf in Cornwall. Now, it regularly grabs headlines for its work with publishing heavyweights like EA, Ubisoft, Sega, Square Enix and Capcom. All this is thanks to founder James Dance, who describes himself as a veteran of operating on a non-existing budget”. He is currently seeking crowd-funding to start a London branch.

Josh Walker
Age: 25
UK Product Manager, SCEE

Having joined SCEE in 2010, Walker has worked his way up to UK product manager and handles some of Sony’s most cherished franchises such as LittleBigPlanet. He spent time at the European office before moving to the UK product marketing team in June. He is currently polishing off the campaigns behind LittleBigPlanet Karting and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, as well as laying the groundwork for hotly anticipated 2013 titles God of War: Ascension and The Last of Us.

Sean Lincoln
Age: 27
Area Manager, Games Centre

Lincoln has worked with growing Scottish independent retail chain Games Centre for eight years, rising through the ranks to become area manager. He is described as extremely hard working and passionate about the industry”, someone who never shirks a challenge”. Lincoln has played a vital role in a series of Games Centre store openings, midnight launches and has helped instigate several changes that have evolved the chain’s customer offering.

Talal Musa
Age: 25
Sports sub-editor/games and tech journalist, Daily Mail

It’s easy to think all games coverage by the Daily Mail comes with headlines like ‘Ban this sick filth’, but that would be a major disservice to the hard work that Musa does. The journalist strives to establish the newspaper as a strong source of video games news, reviews and features – he has even set up and moderates a Daily Mail Games Facebook page.

Balraj Singh
Age: 26
Account Manager, JCPR

The ever-enthusiastic Balraj ‘Baz’ Singh is known to all who deal with Microsoft, Xbox and their PR agency JCPR. He has worked with the firm since 2009, and has been instrumental in several game launches, Microsoft events and the ongoing evolution of the Xbox brand. One journalist said: Baz has consistently proved to be incredibly professional and friendly, and pulls out all the stops to help get what you need. An absolute pleasure to work with.”

Aaron Cooper
Age: 23
Social Media Co-ordinator, GAME

Spearheading the retailer’s Twitter and Facebook activity, Cooper works hard to grow GAME’s community of loyal customers and interacts with them on a daily basis. He constantly seeks new ways to connect with fans, not only keeping them informed about the latest releases and GAME’s offers but also getting them to engage with the retailer. Cooper’s success with the general GAME account has encouraged individual stores to establish their own Twitter and Facebook presences.

Sian Clarke
Age: 29
Previously Played Games Manager, HMV

Clarke has served with HMV for nearly eight years, moving to the retail giant’s head office b