Women In Gaming: How Virtual Reality Could Spur Social Change In The Video Game Industry

With virtual reality, the video game industry is undergoing its biggest change since consoles made their way into living rooms. It may also stir social change, bringing new opportunities to female developers, whose scarce representation in the industry nowhere near reflects the true number of female gamers. "What we're seeing in the VR space, the spark of excitement around this particular type of technology that has suddenly become cost-effective and also added creative potential," Tracy Fullerton, director of USC Games, told International Business Times at the Games for Change festival in New York last week. "I think there's a tremendous energy and interest. That's always good because there will be opportunities there, and a broad range of them." As of 2014, female developers made up just 22 percent of the industry, with 2 percent identifying as transgender or androgynous, according to an International Game Developers Association workplace study.