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

[Sonofadiddly]

I'm going to have to assume that this rumor is false, because I don't like to assume that people are giant morons who are thick enough to believe that the gender of the main character determines its success rather than if the game is actually good.

I'm an optimist that way.

 

[WrathOfBanja]

A very large percentage of male gamers are, for various reasons, uncomfortable with or unable to play a female character. However, they seem quite capable of playing some really effeminate male characters, which I suppose means they're comfortable as long as the dude is, under all that hair and gloss, a dude.

Mainstream example?

 

[Credge]

The title of the article is severely misleading, especially considering the content of the article. In fact, I would say the article is far more sexist than Activisions practices.

This is just so absurd. The article title could have just as easily of been titled "Activision Doesn't Think White Men Leads Can Sell Games."

Absurdity. Now just about every response in this thread has been a list of female characters in games... AS IF the female character was the reason the game was bought.

If anyone really thinks people bought Metroid/Portal/Resident Evil/Mirror's Edge/Whatever other game because it had a female lead... you're just an absurd sexist plain and simple.

 

[Nazz3]

Huh. I thought they sell more.

 

[annoyinglizardvoice]

I'd have been much more likely to have bought that "Black Orchid" game than any true crimes game.
Female main characters only put off frat-boys, not proper people
A choice of main characters might have been a way round this sort of problem in some games.

 

[Credge]

That has NO bearing on the matter at hand. Activision says female leads don't sell games. Chell is a female lead and Portal sold like hotcakes.

So you're saying that the main character being a female is the reason the game sold? Because, that's exactly what you wrote. Are you saying that Portal wouldn't have sold well if it had a male as the main character?

Because, that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard.

There is no causation there.

 

[Mr. Gency]

Firstly, in my opinion Lightning isn't even the lead character in FFXIII since she isn't seen more than others and isn't focused on more than others, she is just shown on the box art and is the first character you see, other than that everyone is evenly distrubuted in terms of screen time.

Well did you buy (or rent, or whatever) the game thinking Lightning was the main character?

 

[NickCaligo42]

Eh? Since when do female leads not sell games? Look at Mass Effect! Shepard's a woman, and that game sold great!

 

[RedBeta22]

Whatever, Let Activision think whatever they want.

 

[Pingieking]

Funny sh*t from Activision again. They've certainly taken the fun out of making games, as they said they would.

 

[meglathon]

If anything rumours always have some merit since they start somewhere.
OT: At this point iv given up on Activion to make any good or human decision, unless there is a lot of money involved. Since their making too much money from WoW and MW2 they've tasted a river of gold and will never let go.

 

[SeriousIssues]

I don't want to be yelled at or anything (especially when I probably won't even get back to see it) but I don't think I'd play a woman in a GTA style game. Maybe a female lead thrown into Call of Duty would be a good change, but I just don't play as women in GTA, various RPGs, etc etc because I seem to see a direct correlation between looking cool and being male (I am a male, I like to play as a male, and yes. I do like to look cool in video games as lame as it sounds).

While there have been famous female leads, I think it depends more on genre, themes, and such.
Samus was a 'guy' for most of the games from what I've seen.
Lara Croft is in adventure games.

(Sorry, only read the first page I'm in a hurry.)

 

[WrathOfBanja]

Chell never speaks, and has about as much character development as the companion cube. Also, you only know she's a girl if you care to set up some portals to look in and find out.

tl;dr: Chell could be a midget bear and it wouldnt change Portal at all.

That has NO bearing on the matter at hand. Activision says female leads don't sell games. Chell is a female lead and Portal sold like hotcakes.


Yes, Portal could have had a midget bear in her place. Or hell even a garbage truck. The game wouldn't have changed much. But it had a female human as a lead, and it sold like hotcakes.

Erego it's perfect for proving Activision quite wrong.

No, its really not. Chell didnt sell Portal. Portal's unique gameplay sold Portal. Chell's female status was completely unimportant.
So yes, my post did have bearing on the matter at hand, because it shows how Portal is a completely terrible example for proving Activision wrong.

 

[ArmorArmadillo]

First;
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/470146

Second;

Tomb Raider?
a lot of resident evil games?
metroid?
bayonetta?
no? okay, i must just be imagining things.

Aww, come on guys, I can't be the only one who remembers Perfect Dark, can I? That was a good example of a strong..ish female lead within a good...ish plot who was never portrayed as being inadequate or otherwise solely for being a woman. She could also be genuinely sexy rather than being falsely sexified.

Okay, assuming that Activision actually said any of this (I mean, can we really trust 'sources'?)
Look at all of the examples you list:
Sex Object, Sex Objects, Didn't Even Know She Was A Woman, Sex Object

And really, even if we didn't dismiss them as such, we're really going in a faulty direction here since really the claim isn't that female leads CAN'T be successful, just that they are less successful than male leads, and there you have friction. What we'd really need to see is roughly equivalent games with male and female leads and seeing how they sell, and that's a hard thing to measure. Yes Portal was a success, but that (IMO) owed very little to Chell being female or male. A game like, say, Gears of War or Starcraft 2 though is very heavily geared towards its male lead being a tough macho-manchild. Those games are selling well, so that's what they're trying to imitate.

Of course, though, like most marketing paradigms, it's primarily wrong and built on reactionary "we know what works" style, and assuming the entire consumer base is Carl from Aquateen.

 

[Jake the Snake]

*Insert foot into mouth here* Activision, you guys are idiots.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Activision: Pulling excuses for why their games fail since.. forever.

 

[reddfawks]

As a woman, I'll give 'em an earful of my rage, but I have to wait...about another two weeks.