One-time E3 darling and Assassin’s Creed creator Ubisoft has found itself at the pointy end of its own sword after publically suggesting that playable female characters are just not feasible in new title Assassin’s Creed: Unity which was announced on Monday as this equals more effort for the production team.
After strong appearances at the annual Los Angeles based Electronic Entertainment Expo in recent years Ubisoft, also the company behind chart-topping title Watch Dogs, really put its foot in its mouth this time around with the comments that have raised some outrage from female gamers who had been looking forward to the possibility of arse-kicking lady avatars in the new game Assassin’s Creed: Unity – but who have had their wishes shunned by the developer/publisher.
The new addition to the popular franchise allows up to four Templar knights to join forces online and complete missions as a team. Notably all the characters featured on the huge banners at E3 were all males and in a message to the press Ubisoft reveals this is because the addition of customisable assassins was enough work in itself and putting in fighting females would ultimately be too much additional work.
Reasons for dropping the female option were given by Ubisoft creative director Alex Amancio in an interview with Polygon in which he states adding another gender model would mean ‘double the animations, double the voices’ and ‘all that stuff’. Frankly a bit of a rubbish justification when you witness the absolutely awe inspiring vision of 18th century France the company has spent months developing as a new playground in Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
As damage control begins a follow-up statement has been given by the company’s spokesperson Michael Beadle which reads:
“We recognize the valid concern around diversity in video game narrative. Assassin’s Creed is developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs and we hope this attention to diversity is reflected in the settings of our games and our characters.
Assassin’s Creed Unity is focused on the story of the lead character, Arno. Whether playing by yourself or with the co-op Shared Experiences, you the gamer will always be playing as Arno, complete with his broad range of gear and skill sets that will make you feel unique.
With regard to diversity in our playable Assassins, we’ve featured Aveline, Connor, Adewale and Altair in Assassin’s Creed games and we continue to look at showcasing diverse characters. We look forward to introducing you to some of the strong female characters in Assassin’s Creed Unity.”
Assassin’s Creed: Unity will be released on October the 28th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. Here’s a trailer (which features no girls..)