In New Zealand, 29% of gaming employees are now women, up from about 19% a few years ago. Photo / Unsplash
Competing against others is deeply ingrained in the gaming world, yet in an industry built on competitiveness Aotearoa is winning for setting rivalry aside.
Chantelle Cole, programme director of NZ on Air’s Game Development Sector Rebate scheme, considers the local entertainment sector’s camaraderie a point of difference, and pride.
Cole says because Kiwi studios predominantly create original IP, they’re not directly competing with each other.
“They really share resources and international connections – the rising tide lifts all ships.
“We really are a creative powerhouse. We have a unique ability to connect with audiences from all walks of life ... Our really unique sense of humour tends to be a delight to audiences in other countries.”
The games industry is one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing creative industries. According to PwC, the global video games market brought in revenue of US$224 billion ($393b) in 2025, outearning the movie and music industry combined. It’s expected to grow to nearly US$300b by 2029. The workforce is currently 1600 employees but grew by 29% in the last year.
“Those people generated a whopping $760 million in revenue in the last year, over 90% of that revenue is actually coming from overseas so it’s really helping bring money into New Zealand,” said Cole.
“The New Zealand games industry is now actually worth more than double that of Australia, and achieving that level of success with half as many employees.”
Cole says locally 29% of gaming employees are now women, up from about 19% a few years ago.
Nearly half of global players are now women, with women over 30 one of the fastest-growing groups.
Hannah Bennett, 33, is one such gamer. For her, the appeal of gaming lies in the storytelling, “the ability to escape into a beautiful world”.
“With open-world games, you’re literally able to go off in any direction you want and this whole huge world unfolds around you as you do. The worlds are beautiful, fantastical and really layered – wherever you look, there’ll be more to discover.
“Often I just like existing in the world – I’m not necessarily trying to progress the story or ‘win’ the game.”
Cole says there is increasing success in games that prioritise connection over competition.
“Cosy games, narrative games, games with cultural stories, with emotional depth or community-based co-operative experiences ... they’re now some of the most commercially successful games of the past decade. They put relationships, identity and emotional depth at the centre of their stories.”
She points to social simulation game Animal Crossing as a great example.
“They actually set out on purpose to build a team that was half women ... because they knew they wanted to develop a game that would truly appeal to a global audience and half that audience is women.”
It worked – Animal Crossing has become one of the best-selling games of all time for Nintendo.
In her former role as chief executive of award-winning Wellington game studio Dinosaur Polo Club, Cole made a concerted effort to promote gender parity on staff, “building a team that was almost 50% women and 50% women in leadership”.
“When you’re creating a product that has to connect with audiences all around the world, it’s really important to have different perspectives in the room making that product. If half of the audience are women, it makes sense that they are needed in the development of games to help shape the stories being told.”
Cole says her team became “more creative, more collaborative and more successful”, a trend others in the Kiwi industry are capitalising on.
New Zealand was now starting to see more women running studios. Runaway in Dunedin is led by Zoe Hobson, Cerebral Fix in Christchurch has Chelsea Rapp in the role of co-chief executive and head of corporate strategy, while Metia Interactive in Auckland was founded in 2003 by Maru Nihoniho.
“Women, particularly in creative leadership roles, are influencing what stories get told and we’re starting to move away from power fantasies to more personal, nuanced stories and characters,” said Cole.
Creative tech entrepreneur Sam Ramlu is attuned to the power personal narratives have in authentic storytelling within the gaming realm. Known for her work with the immersive time traveller virtual reality (VR) game Wanderer, Ramlu is currently developing How Was Your Day? a narrative-driven, supernatural adventure game focusing on the experiences of a young Fijian Indian girl who has moved to Aotearoa.
Drawing on her own personal experiences has been valuable for Ramlu, who has a background in advertising.
“As marketers you generalise audiences and you build for that general audience. Niche has become so much more interesting.”
This rethinking has changed everything about her approach to game development’s look, including the sound.
“It’s very diverse, it’s New Zealand-centric, it’s got this massive mix of cultures in it. I’ve got some beta readers reading through my script and they are loving that. I was so worried that the voice wouldn’t translate, that I was building something so niche. But I have people who all over the world, who love the story and the diversity that’s coming through, the te reo and Hindi that’s sprinkled throughout the story.”
Originally, Ramlu was hesitant to use voice acting in the narrative.
“I was like. ‘Oh god, everyone’s going to hear this Kiwi accent’.”
But now she’s leaning into the distinctive regionality.
“I was like f*** it, let’s just go all-in.
“I can sit here and whinge and moan about how there’s no content for women in games or I can actually be that change ... why don’t I create it?”
Government support is helping people from all walks do that – create. Founded in 2020, the New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence (Code) in Dunedin is a government-funded hub aimed at growing the national video game development industry through start-up studio funding for prototypes and production, workshops, mentoring and pathways into the industry.
In her role as programme director, Cole oversees New Zealand On Air’s Game Development Sector Rebate (GDSR) a $40m-per-year initiative that provides a 20% refund on eligible expenditure for New Zealand game development studios. Designed to foster industry growth, it requires a minimum annual expenditure of $250,000, with rebates capped at $3m per studio annually.
Cole said as a result of the fund, more women are founding studios in New Zealand.
“Many of those women are actually experienced industry veterans who have worked at other studios, but they’re now more confidently able to strike out on their own to create their own IP.
“I do think it’s important to celebrate what we’re creating here, particularly when you consider that globally only around 2% of venture capital funding goes into companies founded by women.”
Ramlu’s new game doesn’t meet the expenditure threshold, and she thinks we probably need to do more to tip the scales purposefully.
“As much as I hate these quota sort of things, there needs to be some purposeful scholarships for women, people of colour ... because otherwise would they even think of gaming as a first career choice?
“I think by seeing representation in these spaces and having stories that are more diverse with more interesting female characters, we’re seeing more young girls want to step into this space and shape the stories that they hope to see on the global stage.”
Bennett agrees: “Women are interested in powerful stories, and want to see themselves represented as dynamic, autonomous and nuanced characters, so when studios create games with this in mind, they unlock a massive demographic.”