Prospective Publishers Wanted a Male-Centric Remember Me

[StewShearerOld]

Prospective Publishers Wanted a Male-Centric Remember Me

Dontnod Studios had a hard time finding a publisher for its female-fronted action game.

The videogame industry has an arguably <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/3150-Solving-the-Sexism-Situation>negative relationship with gender. A large portion of the medium's <a href=http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp>audience is female and yet, more often then not, publishers and developers behave as though that half of the demographic is nonexistent. The majority of videogames are made and marketed for men, and some in the industry feel that female-fronted videogames are, by default, <a href=http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/games-with-female-heroes-dont-sell-because-publishers-dont-support-them>a losing proposition sales-wise. This is a bias that Dontnod Studios can attest to all too well. In the process of pitching its game Remember Me, several publishers turned the title down on account of the protagonist being a woman.

"We had some that said, 'Well, we don't want to publish it because that's not going to succeed," said Jean-Max Morris, creative director at Dontnod Studios. "You can't have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that.'" Dontnod's experience is far from surprising given the sad prevalence of such attitudes in the gaming industry. In the past, some publishers have gone as far as forcing developers to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102593-Rumor-Activision-Doesnt-Think-Female-Leads-Can-Sell-Games>change the gender of a game's hero, hoping to boost sales.

Despite these reactions, Dontnod refused to change Remember Me. "The world we were building was much more about emotion, intimacy, identity, and the way technology would intersect those. It just felt like the other side of the coin, the yin and the yang, and it just made sense to us that it would be a female character," said Morris.

Remember Me eventually found a publisher in Capcom. Even so, it's hard not to be flabbergasted by the persistent belief some maintain in the non-viability of female protagonists. Metroid, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Bayonetta; these are just a few franchises that have starred women at one point or another, and they certainly didn't suffer for lack of a Y chromosome.

Source: <a href=http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/remember-mes-surprising-connection-to-facebook-and-why-its-protagonist-had>Penny Arcade


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[Legion]

This is the point I keep on making. It's not that most gamers don't want female characters (although of course there are always some), it's that developers seem to think that we don't, or that we won't buy games if they have them.

That's the problem when companies are designed around focus groups and "market research" rather than just trying to make a good game and then selling it. They keep trying to appeal to a statistic rather than actual people.

To be honest the only part of Remember Me that puts me off is that irritating hologram thing near her neck. The idea of one being there isn't bad, but the design draws the eye to it the entire time it is on screen. That, and the voice acting seems a little lacklustre.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

This is the point I keep on making. It's not that gamers don't want female characters, it's that developers seem to think that we don't, or that we won't buy games if they have them.

Agreed, if the game (and story/character development) is good I don't really think most gamers will give a shit about the gender of the character.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

It's interesting because there could be some subconscious impulse that can effect sales, it's not unlikely that some of us scoffing at the sheer silliness of such a claim are influenced like this.

Obviously publishers turning down developers because of this is just bad and it only serves to stifle the industry further. It's very old fashioned thinking, and hopefully things improve as time goes on.

I do love to see females in lead roles and just generally being important rather than a burden. The damsel in distress thing is so god damn ancient at this point it's very tiring.

Seeing Lara Croft in the new Tomb Raider game rise to the challenge was very refreshing I'll tell you that.

 

[The Lunatic]

Publishers don't want to take risks?

What a shock.

A female protagonist, is a risk. Simply the case.

The majority of people on this forum are likely part of the "Core" gaming community.

We see games beyond box art and trailers.

The majority of people who buy games, are not us.

So, yes, the idea of spending a lot of money on a game that might not sell because, fact is, games with female protagonists don't sell as well, isn't exactly mind boggling.

Is it fair? Absolutely not.

But, until it's no longer the case, scarcely will preaching to the choir fix a damn thing.

 

[gigastar]

Most men would think starring a female protagonist in a third-person game would help sales.

Apparently publishers arent most men. Assuming theres still any human left in them.

 

[Irridium]

I find it funny how Publishers are always on about selling to as many people as possible, yet they only market games to one demographic.

Publishers don't want to take risks?

What a shock.

A female protagonist, is a risk. Simply the case.

The majority of people on this forum are likely part of the "Core" gaming community.

We see games beyond box art and trailers.

The majority of people who buy games, are not us.

So, yes, the idea of spending a lot of money on a game that might not sell because, fact is, games with female protagonists don't sell as well, isn't exactly mind boggling.

Is it fair? Absolutely not.

But, until it's no longer the case, scarcely will preaching to the choir fix a damn thing.

Only there's so few games with female protagonists, and the ones that do exist usually get screwed marketing/budget-wise, that there's no solid data that states female characters can't sell.

 

[Candidus]

Pity the developer isn't naming and shaming the publishing houses that demanded a protagonist sex-swap.

I can't forgive Capcom for ruining MML3 then cancelling their ruined version of MML3, or for refusing to give Darkstalkers a true revival, or for refusing to include R.Mika with any of the latest SF titles... But I'll be grabbing this game all the same. Maybe with the money I'll soon be saving by giving Bioshock Infinite a miss.

 

[synobal]

Here is the problem a publisher publishes a game with a male protagonist it bombs, well something was wrong with it. It was broken, the game sucked, everyone pirated it etc etc.

Publisher publishes a game with a female protagonist it bombs, it was because gamers are guys and no one relates to a chick.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Here is the problem a publisher publishes a game with a male protagonist it bombs, well something was wrong with it. It was broken, the game sucked, everyone pirated it etc etc.

Publisher publishes a game with a female protagonist it bombs, it was because gamers are guys and no one relates to a chick.

Most men would think starring a female protagonist in a third-person game would help sales.

Spoiler: Or, as XKCD put it

And as [user]Gigastar[/user] said, the dad of an ex girlfriend of mine exclusively played with female characters because (surprise surprise) he found the female models more aesthetically pleasing than male models.

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RIP Vault 101

You will be missed.​

 

[duchaked]

the immediate rejection by publishers was a surprise to me not because of its meaning but how straightforward they were with it lol...guess I shouldn't have felt any surprise

on another note, I don't find myself relating better with a female lead or anything, but admittedly the rugged brown-haired white man character isn't exactly a mirror image of myself either

 

[CalInJoe]

Everytime I hear things like this, I sigh. I really don't think the gender matters at all.

 

[Something Amyss]

This is the point I keep on making. It's not that gamers don't want female characters, it's that developers seem to think that we don't, or that we won't buy games if they have them.

That's not completely true, though. Time and again, threads on here have given credibility to the logic. People who strongly prefer to play men or refuse to play as women do exist. And, I might add, in pretty large numbers.

Granted, this site is not the sum total of the gaming population, but I didn't claim it proved anything. Just that it lent credibility to it.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

There was a thread recently asking people what they want improved next gen, every person and their dog said AI. I couldn't give two shits about AI, give me more female protagonists man.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

And then when I tell people that publishers who actually own gaming studios have a tremendous amount of control over the creative process people think that I'm talking nonsense.

 

[MarsProbe]

I may have ninja'ed by the article itself, but yeh, the terrible performance of the Tomb Raider series shows game with female protagonists just don't work. Also, nobody liked Female Commander Shepard. Remember how much everybody complained when Bioware decided to put on the box art for ME3?

 

[Quantum Glass]

I'm actually kind of curious as to how they came to this conclusion. For past games, have playtesters been asked if they didn't like playing as female characters? Would anyone actually respond to that with, "yes?"

And it's not like they can know from experience--there aren't exactly a plethora of video games with female protagonist that were critically well received despite lackluster sales (In other words, games that weren't genuinely bad).