MerlinCross said:
I find it funny that no one remembers "Remember Me". Lemme see....
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/57722/remember-me/
If this is right, "Remember Me" is sitting at 0.32 million sells. So 320,000 copies roughly I think. With a female protag.
So what can we draw from this? That female protagonists don't sell? Given the two games brought up here seem to show that yes they do. Or at least with marketing and a good game they sell. Or that just good games sell. It's like with horror and RTS games. "They don't sell"; have you TRIED? Have you honestly tried games industry?
I hate to bring up the quote but it's actually pretty good here. "Let the market decide". These two games seem to have sold pretty well so the market doesn't seem to care about the gender. Other than everyone freaking out about Neir's rears.
I'm no marketer so the conclusions I draw might be far off the charts, but I'd like to bring attention to another game: Dishonored.
It and Remember Me was released the same year. Both were new IPs at the end of a console generation. Both were rated M for Mature. Both were also made in France, for whatever it is worth(there probably are some cultural artifacts that can be found in the titles, but I'm mainly focusing on how easily gaming publications had access to developer interviews and marketing material).
On sold well enough to warrant a sequel, the other sold badly. One had a male protagonist, the other a female. What can we draw from this?
It depends on what you're looking for, but I think looking at what they drew from can be informative.
Dishonored has been said to be a current iteration on the Thief franchise. Thief has in the past sold well enough to have a complete trilogy be produced. Remember Me has been compared to God Hand, a game with a cult following but which has never received any sequel. From this it is not odd that one sold well and the other did not.
Looking over the history of the studios behind the games, another pattern can be seen: Arkane of Dishonored had released titles previously, Dontnod of Remember Me had not. I remember GameTrailers' review of Remember Me mentioning that there were mistakes in the game that a more experienced developer should've seen and corrected right away.
Finally, I'd argue that Remember Me tried to do a few too many things. It had a God Handesque combat system, a memory manipulation mini game and a standard action adventure overworld, and focusing on so many things was to its overall detriment. Given that Life is Strange more or less took the memory manipulation mini game as its central aspect and that was a well received title, I think it's not unwarranted to claim they threw a too wide net in Remember Me. One cannot fault Dontnod for playing it safe, but I believe people are hesitant with parting with 50$ on something they're uncertain if they'll even like. I am less familiar with Dishonored, but I believe it a more conservative title in it gameplay than Remember Me.
There are probably other conclusions one can draw; if there are, I'm curious to hear.