THE BRIT LIST: MEDIA SIMON BYRON, PREMIER PR
PREMIER PR turned to Byron in 2009 to launch them into the games sector. Today, the agency is one of the biggest in video games. Over the last year Premier PR worked on blockbuster games including Pokémon X and Y, Batman: Arkham Origins and Farm Heroes Saga, and even extended its award-winning games department. Byron has now also taken responsibility for Premier’s Social Team. In his spare time, he co-presents popular video games radio show, One Life Left.
RUPERT LOMAN, GAMER NETWORK
THE founder and CEO of Gamer Network – which includes the likes of Eurogamer,
GamesIndustry.bizand VG247– set up his business while he was in sixth form college. Over the last 18 months, Loman has taken his company’s brand of journalism to the US by launching USGamer. The firm’s Eurogamer Expo also enjoyed its biggest year to-date at Earls Court in London.
STUART SAW, TWITCH
IT’S been a big year for online streaming giant Twitch, grabbing the headlines with everything from a mass game of Pokémonto its inclusion in mobile games, PS4 and Xbox One. The firm’s UK boss is Stuart Saw who began his career as a presenter on channels such as Sky and Eurosport. In November 2012 he became regional director for Twitch, growing its presence across the UK.
KEITH STUART, THE GUARDIAN
The journalist veteran speaks to MCVon what’s influenced his glittering media career
So how did you get started in games?
I’ve played games all my life, starting out with typing BASIC programs into a ZX81 with my Dad. Then I made a few Dragon 32 games with my friend Jonathan and later, while I was at university, I spent my summer at Big Red Software helping to write manuals and doing QA. When I left Uni I did the standard "Oh shit, what am I going to do?” Then I saw Edgeadvertising for a writer so I went for it.
Who has influenced you in your career?
I read Julian Rignall, Gary Penn and Stuart Campbell religiously – they were funny, knowledgeable, unpretentious, brilliant writers. My
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first editor, Jason Brooks, taught me to sacrifice everything for a good story – we never made the Edgedeadline on time. Outside of games, I read a lot of Pauline Kael who wrote so naturally and so intelligently about entertainment. Also, my dad loved games and encouraged me to work with them – he never saw it as wasted time.
Where do you think the games industry is heading? Somewhere great. There are no barriers to expression any more – anyone can use GameMaker, and a few months later they have a title that can be seen by millions. Times are really hard in the triple-A sector but that is a sign of how the rhythms of game development are changing. It’s inevitable to me that games will become the primary source of entertainment in the future – they will merge with and take over TV.
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STUART DREDGE, FREELANCE
THERE are very few journalists that write about mobile games and even fewer that do it well. Stuart Dredge is one of the very best. He may be known for his technology writing, but Dredge is a games journalist at heart. He has worked on the Mobile Games Analystand written extensively for MCVsister publication Mobile Entertainment. He also began his career writing for Official Dreamcast Magazine. Dredge is a freelance writer of apps, music and games and regularly contributes to The Guardian.
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