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When looking around the game industry, games with a female lead character are in short supply. This is a problem that has gotten slightly better in the recent past, with titles like Bayonetta and Wet seeing releases. However, female led games are still vastly outnumbered by titles that place players into the roles of male characters. According to a report from Gamasutra, this is part of the reason that Activision doesn’t release games with female protagonists, other than those sporting Barbie and Dora licenses.  Much of this report focused on how Activision makes its decisions about a game’s development based on what is at the top of the sales charts and the results of focus testing. One source claimed “If Activision does not see a female lead in the top five games that year, they will not have a female lead.” Another source, referring to how True Crime: Hong Kong was originally a concept called Black Lotus and featuring a female assassin lead, stated “Activision has no room for ‘we are making an open-world game with a Hong Kong action movie feel with a female lead,’ because that game doesn’t exist right now.” This report also contained a response from Activision denying the assertions of these sources claiming “Activision respects the creative vision of its development teams. The company does not have a policy of telling its studios what game content they can develop, nor has the company told any of its studios that they cannot develop games with female lead characters.” No matter which side of this mess is telling the truth, Activision certainly doesn’t need any more negative attention, considering the company’s currently negative perception by many gamers. |