Rumor: Activision Doesn't Think Female Leads Can Sell Games

[Flamezdudes]

Yeah, because games with a female lead have never made a major impact on gaming.

Spoiler: Oh, wait

I hate focus groups so much. And this pisses me off. Your game won't sell well if it has a male-lead. Stop focusing on pointless things and focus on actually making the games fun.

Morons.

Wait. WAIT. METROID IS FEMALE? How did i never know of this? Why didn't anyone tell me? I've never played the games mind you but i have played little bits and seen friends play the game.

 

[oranger]

I'm coming to the hypothesis that perhaps the people who run these huge, over-sized game companies
(and people who climb to the top of any over-sized company) are damaged in some way, that they use more of their lizard brain than the rest of us.

 

[oranger]

Yeah, because games with a female lead have never made a major impact on gaming.

Spoiler: Oh, wait

I hate focus groups so much. And this pisses me off. Your game won't sell well if it has a male-lead. Stop focusing on pointless things and focus on actually making the games fun.

Morons.

Wait. WAIT. METROID IS FEMALE? How did i never know of this? Why didn't anyone tell me? I've never played the games mind you but i have played little bits and seen friends play the game.

Its a damn shame what they're doing to Samus in metroid M.
The whole point of Samus Aran (beyond her silent protagonism) is that she is a woman who DOESN'T run around in public wearing nothing but latex....instead she never takes her suit off in front of others.

 

[ckam]

It would be interesting to control a female character in a Modern Warfare-like game.

 

[Hurray Forums]

Yeah, because games with a female lead have never made a major impact on gaming.

Spoiler: Oh, wait

I hate focus groups so much. And this pisses me off. Your game won't sell well if it has a male-lead. Stop focusing on pointless things and focus on actually making the games fun.

Morons.

Tons of people say games with female leads can sell really well, yet the first game that people ALWAYS bring up in topics like this is a character who purposely had their femininity hidden in their original game except for the obligatory fanservice at the end of the game, and ever since has only had said femininity exposed for more fanservice(*glares at Zero Suit Samus*). Samus is NOT a female character, it's a robot suit that the developers decided "Hey, lets throw a chick in their to mess with some people's heads". Doesn't the fact that the only truly popular female lead character that gaming can offer up has their femininity hidden behind a cold metal shell kind of imply that maybe it's not as far off the mark as people say? The only time female leads(where it's not a "choose your own sex" game) really have sold well is in the "blatant fanservice role" like in Tomb Raider, Dead or Alive, and Bayonetta. All the games that have female leads that are actually identifiable as female and not blatant fan service like Mirror's Edge, Xenosaga, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Longest Journey haven't sold very well at all. Sure, they're cult favorites and were rated high by critics, but that doesn't mean they sold well. That's not to say that we shouldn't demand more games with female leads and that developers shouldn't make them, but more along the lines that the fear developers have of actually doing it isn't entirely unfounded, and that placing the blame all on them isn't very fair. Actual gamers shape the industry just as much as developers.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

What about the Final Fantasy games?

What?

you mean they were guys?

Even Tidus?

Damn...

Seriously tho, I'll throw in Portal. I also agree with Sigma:

I think if the female lead is overly sexualized, then yes, a male character will be a stronger choice. Look at Jade and Samus: neither are very sexualized, but both are very strong characters willing to do what needs to get done. I don't know about Tomb Raider as I've never played them, but I could see where Laura could prove me wrong since I know there has been a bit of a mainstream sexualization of her. Still, she is a strong woman who likes to kick ass more than take her shirt off, so I can see where she is a still a good lead.

Essentially I think a well crafted female character will be accepted, if it's just gratuitous titties, then a fair amount of gamers will be too embarrassed to be seen even taking that game to the store clerk.

Maybe I overanalyse, but I sense if I liked the Tomb Raider games, and I bought one, I'd have a niggling voice in my head going 'you know, he think you're only buying it for the jiggle physics'.

 

[lacktheknack]

Yeah, because games with a female lead have never made a major impact on gaming.

Spoiler: Oh, wait

I hate focus groups so much. And this pisses me off. Your game won't sell well if it has a male-lead. Stop focusing on pointless things and focus on actually making the games fun.

Morons.

Wait. WAIT. METROID IS FEMALE? How did i never know of this? Why didn't anyone tell me? I've never played the games mind you but i have played little bits and seen friends play the game.

<link=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LateArrivalSpoiler?from=Main.YouShouldKnowThisAlready>Ummm... Her name is Samus. That's your first clue.

And again, Lara Croft. That is all.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'm doing my little Tomb Raider dance down here. Also the aforementioned Samus Aran, Beyond Good and Evil.

A good portrayal of a realistic female character in a game would be so very different, and I for one would like to see it happen. I'm not talking about just having a woman in the main role, though I do like that and roleplay female in RPGs, but an actual female who couldn't in any way be substituted for a male.

Think of Ripley in Aliens. It's much more believable to have the mother figure going after the daughter figure than it would be to have the father figure doing it in quite the same way. Imagine how cool that game would be to play, where you're not just doing it for the goal of defeating the big crime boss or something, but the much closer goal of the daughter or similar.

 

[William Dickbringer]

well this is just a case of digital sexism I believe this sums up everyone's reaction

Yeah, because games with a female lead have never made a major impact on gaming.

Spoiler: Oh, wait

I hate focus groups so much. And this pisses me off. Your game won't sell well if it has a male-lead. Stop focusing on pointless things and focus on actually making the games fun.

Morons.

Wait. WAIT. METROID IS FEMALE? How did i never know of this? Why didn't anyone tell me? I've never played the games mind you but i have played little bits and seen friends play the game.

wow I thought everyone in this day in age knew samus was a girl it's one of the the greatest twist in video game history (I understand your point though you never really played the game)

 

[Naheal]

What about the Final Fantasy games?

What?

you mean they were guys?

Even Tidus?

They were guys... every single.. oh wait

Spoiler: Found one.

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

Call me a typical male stereotype, but I'm more interested when there's an interesting-looking girl on a game's cover than when it's a two-a-penny neckless military dickhead.

 

[Talvrae]

Ermmm... Lara Croft.... Seriously... I know some like to point to Samus but well she is not obviously a woman when you look at her... but LAra was uge back in the early 2000 and obviously female... Think they should start to look at history instand of focus group

 

[Crimsane]

Meh. Don't believe stories where you have to rely on phrases like "might be" and anonymous sources to be worth publishing, tbh.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Snipped from the other thread:

Uh....Sarah Louise Kerrigan?

She was in this little known game called Starcraft?

So Chell/GLADos, Joanna Dark, The Agent: Kate Archer, Faith Connors, Alyx Vance, Princess Peach, Tifa Lockhart, Cassandra/Sophitia Alexandra, Chun Li/Cammy White/Rose Bison, Rubi Malone, Nariko, Claire Redfield/Jill Valentine, Anna/Nina Williams, Miranda Keyes, Mileena/Kitana, Chai Xianghua, Cortana, Zoey/Rochelle, Damsel/Tourette/Velvet Velour/Pisha/Ming-Xiao, The Path's Sisters, Ashleigh Williams, Sailor Moon, Wonder Woman, Buffy Summers/Willow, Aeryn Sun, Leia Organa, ALICE, Gatchaman Jun, Princess Zelda, Sarah Connor or Dana Scully couldn't sell games?

And of course, Lara Croft, Bayonetta, Mai Shiranui, Ivy Valentine for the T&A brigade.

 

[doodger]

I can't understand activision's logic.

If there would be more female protagonist, maybe more girl would play games. And real female person, not just a big-breasted side character. I mean, woman are like half of the world's population. Even in the military, some of history's greatest warrior and chief were woman. I'm very sick of always playing the same face-less american soldier.

 

[duchaked]

rumor or not, would this really come as a surprise?

besides, nobody cried over the death of a male character like they did with say...Aeris (lol)

 

[Hurray Forums]

Snipped from the other thread:

Uh....Sarah Louise Kerrigan?

She was in this little known game called Starcraft?

So Chell/GLADos, Joanna Dark, The Agent: Kate Archer, Faith Connors, Alyx Vance, Princess Peach, Tifa Lockhart, Cassandra/Sophitia Alexandra, Chun Li/Cammy White/Rose Bison, Rubi Malone, Nariko, Claire Redfield/Jill Valentine, Anna/Nina Williams, Miranda Keyes, Mileena/Kitana, Chai Xianghua, Cortana, Zoey/Rochelle, Damsel/Tourette/Velvet Velour/Pisha/Ming-Xiao, The Path's Sisters, Ashleigh Williams, Sailor Moon, Wonder Woman, Buffy Summers/Willow, Aeryn Sun, Leia Organa, ALICE, Gatchaman Jun, Princess Zelda, Sarah Connor or Dana Scully couldn't sell games?

And of course, Lara Croft, Bayonetta, Mai Shiranui, Ivy Valentine for the T&A brigade.

Most of those aren't "lead" characters or video game characters, which is what this topic is discussing. http://thesaurus.com/browse/lead+character. I don't think anyone would be dumb enough to say games with females in supplementary or support roles haven't tended to sell well in the past.