Current Events > Ubisoft leadership: "Women don't sell"

(+) Yeah! (+)

s0nicfan posted...

So we need more sexy/sexual women in gaming?

Yoko Taro responded to criticisms of his leads being too sexualized by asking the internet to send him Zips of fan art. He has boasted about the number of polygons in 2B's butt.

Nothing wrong with that videogame charaters arent real people, and sexy shit is sexy that is a good thing. You think outside of a charater creator you are ever gonna get a 400 pound boogieseque person as a main charater? People male/female/X/gay/straight/bi like attractive things.

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BignutzisBack posted...

These dweebs had the audacity to put that message of inclusion at the start of their games and then pull crap like this

Well technically it's true.

There's just a white guy who is their boss who tells them no.

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TheGoldenEel posted...

Btw GTA San Andreas sold incredibly well

I do remember it being a subject of controversy that CJ was a black guy, similar to how Windwaker or "Celda" was a divisive design choice for Zelda when it originally released.

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Delirious_Beard posted...

suggesting that people hated Other M because it attempted to "humanize" Samus is remarkably disingenuous

Serously people disliked it because of how much it depowered the charater. Badass bounty hunter that aint afraid of nothin, suddenly in tears over a fucking teradactal shes killed at least twice by the time of Other M and cowtowing to some lame ass military goons when she normally gets doomslayer and master chief levels of respect.

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"Women don't sell"
Zzzzzz. Wha...he has a point right?
"Single player games don't sell"
FUCK YOU

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darkbuster posted...

I do remember it being a subject of controversy that CJ was a black guy, similar to how Windwaker or "Celda" was a divisive design choice for Zelda when it originally released.

And yet

it sold incredibly well

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OctoPop posted...

Facts don't care about your feelings

I didn't say anything wasn't a fact. A lot of people are factually stupid, sexist, racist, etc.

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TheGoldenEel posted...

And yet

it sold incredibly well

Both San Andreas & Windwaker were sequels in established franchises. Both had a degree of insulation from this issue, in the fact they were practically guaranteed to sell regardless.

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darkbuster posted...

Both San Andreas & Windwaker were sequels in established franchises. Both had a degree of insulation from this issue, in the fact they were practically guaranteed to sell regardless.

Just like Assassin's Creed.

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MajesticFerret posted...

Samus arguably even more so and any attempt to humanize her in Other M was met with backlash

Delirious_Beard posted...

suggesting that people hated Other M because it attempted to "humanize" Samus is remarkably disingenuous

Seriously, absolutely dumb statement. Especially because Metroid Fusion had already done that and that game is beloved by the fans.

Other M's problem wasn't that it tried to characterize Samus more, it's that it did it poorly. Especially since it was effectively a remake of Fusion, but doing what Fusion already did worse in just about every way. The story, the characterizations of Samus and Adam, the concept of a more linear Metroid game with lots of boss fights, etc. The game was just retreading ground that a GameBoy Advance game had already done far better. Shit, the game even reused some bosses except worse: Fusion had way better fights against Nightmare and Ridley.

I'm so glad Samus Returns happened. First decent Metroid game since Echoes. Corruption was kind of boring and mediocre (but not bad), Other M and Federation Force were just absolute trash. It was nice to finally get a nice Metroid game again.

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Delirious_Beard posted...

suggesting that people hated Other M because it attempted to "humanize" Samus is remarkably disingenuous

The problem isn't that she was "humanized", the problem was that she was portrayed as weak; she has to wait for authorization to use her suit functions. Like, it really took me fighting the boss in the VOLCANO room to make Adam realize that maybe, having a HEAT-RESISTANT suit might be a good idea. Gee, thanks. You should've realized that as I was progressing ON MY WAY to the boss. smh.

I dont think "Women dont sell"

Its more like "trying to pander to Women doesnt sell"

The Triple A industry majorly tries to capitalize on demographics and hitting a broad audience to sell games, so essentially all thye know how to do is pander.

All the great examples of games with women protagonists are games that are largely NOT trying to pander.
Horizon Zero Dawn, Tomb Raider, Portal.

I think another distinction that should be made is people dont like when you take a primarily male protagonist series and inexplicably turn it into a female protagonist, it comes off heavily as pandering especially when its a bad game as well it becomes easy to blame "feminizing" a game or movie.

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It's a self fulfilling prophecy. These idiots are so convinced of their own bias they don't push the game, give it a good budget, market it well and when it underperforms they can be like "See we told you so!"

Not to mention ubisoft's higher ups are scummy and engage in a lot of harassment.
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deoxxys posted...

I dont think "Women dont sell"

Its more like "trying to pander to Women doesnt sell"

The Triple A industry majorly tries to capitalize on demographics and hitting a broad audience to sell games, so essentially all thye know how to do is pander.

All the great examples of games with women protagonists are games that are largely NOT trying to pander.
Horizon Zero Dawn, Tomb Raider, Portal.

I think another distinction that should be made is people dont like when you take a primarily male protagonist series and inexplicably turn it into a female protagonist, it comes off heavily as pandering especially when its a bad game as well it becomes easy to blame "feminizing" a game or movie.

I doubt Assassin's Creed Odyssey with just Kassandra would have felt like pandering.

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LightningAce11 posted...

It's a self fulfilling prophecy. These idiots are so convinced of their own bias they don't push the game, give it a good budget, market it well and when it underperforms they can be like "See we told you so!"

So you think Ubisoft sabotages their own games to push some sort of anti-women agenda? That seems a bit...tin foil hat..

Grischnak posted...

So you think Ubisoft sabotages their own games to push some sort of anti-women agenda? That seems a bit...tin foil hat..

They haven't done it so there's nothing for them to sabotage. It's just been small budget spin-offs that had female leads in AC.

If anything the biggest AC game that flopped was Unity. Which had a white guy lead. Didn't bother them though.

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Grischnak posted...

So you think Ubisoft sabotages their own games to push some sort of anti-women agenda? That seems a bit...tin foil hat..

I don't think he's saying it's intentional, he's saying they don't give it the same push because it's seen as a bigger risk at the outset

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Yeah the most they'll do is a small side story or mobile game, not a full AAA with massive budget that does not have a white male dudebro.
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It's just typical of Ubisoft in general really.

Blacklist flopped? Ah it has nothing to do with it releasing right before next gen consoles and the fact we never bothered porting it. It's because Splinter Cell isn't popular so it's time to move on. We'll just slap the property into other games.

Assassin's Creed Unity and Syndicate flopped in succession?! Oh lets take a year break and try to make the franchise exciting again. Now they have another formula they'll suck that dry until it flops.

I bet we'll see another sandbox Ghost Recon game too despite Breakpoint flopping so bad they delayed every other game. Having 4 open world games as a service games makes more sense than actually trying to have some diversity in their lineup.

Ironically enough mindsets like this mean they're unable to start up a new major franchise like Assassin's Creed to begin with.

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Does Odyssey still have this message on startup like the older games?


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darkbuster posted...

Both San Andreas & Windwaker were sequels in established franchises. Both had a degree of insulation from this issue, in the fact they were practically guaranteed to sell regardless.

We are discussing Ubisoft refusing to allow a woman protagonist in something like... the eighth assassins creed game

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yusiko posted...

was ubisoft the company with the president who said that gaming was the last safe space left for straight white men?

@yusiko
Not sure if this has been answered (still reading through the topic), but it was a Riot Games exec that said that.

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MajesticFerret posted...

Samus arguably even more so and any attempt to humanize her in Other M was met with backlash

Probably because they wrote this badass bounty hunter and planet-destroyer as a submissive, emotionally-stunted brat who somehow freezes up when faced with the Ridley clone despite killing the real deal many times before.

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HiddenRoar posted...

Funny, when you consider the "We need moar dIVeRsiTY in our video games, movies, etc." spiel parroted by a certain group.

@HiddenRoar
And the certain other group bitching about "SJWs" and "pandering" when such things happen.

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Make women sexy again

(In video games)

No more Butch chicks

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Lol @ eyeing the male protagonists instead of the actual game

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In the real world, it's more like ugly women don't sell.

Ugly men somewhat get away with it but is not immune. I couldn't play assassins creed rogue because the main character was too ugly with an ugly fake accent.

Why do you think women wear make up?

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