back to article Women are too expensive to draw and code – Ubisoft

Ubisoft's creative director Alex Amancio has stirred up another row over sexism in the gaming industry by saying the studio's new game, Assassin's Creed Unity, doesn't feature any female characters because it would have been too much of an effort to create them. Amancio's opinion emerged in this video interview posted by …

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  1. Valeyard

    So which is it?

    Too expensive or because the story demands a male character even if his avatar can change ?

    The latter would be more credible, but I wasn't aware multiplayer games ever really needed a story, and the previous AC games had female assassins in both MP and SP (as part of the group of NPC assassin's you can summon)

    1. dan1980

      Re: So which is it?

      @Valeyard

      Uhhh, both. At least the way I read it, which was:

      The story/campaign/single-player is based around the main, 'Arno' character, who is male. All the work for that character has to be done. Obviously. There is also a multiplayer mode and there was a plan to ADD the option of female avatars for that mode but time/budget constraints made that unfeasible.

      In short, "we didn't have the time to create a female avatar specifically for the multiplayer mode".

      Again, at least that's how I read it, which would turn the headline from "Women are too expensive to draw" into "it's too expensive to add a female option with comparable complexity (models, animations, skins, voicings) for just the multiplayer mode."

      1. wowfood

        Re: So which is it?

        And the inevitable, "We're now releasing DLC for remale avatars whcih wil cost an additional £6.99"

        1. Tim Jenkins

          Re: So which is it?

          And £9.99 for the version with clothing that amounts to more than a bikini...

          1. Grikath

            Re: So which is it? @ Tim

            I'm sure it would be the other way around, if they're smart....

            About two months later the first n3kk1d mods will appear..

            1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

              Double the assets

              Mmmmmm!

              1. P. Lee
                Trollface

                Re: Double the assets

                Good job he didn't have a stutter - that would have landed him in trouble.

                In other news, feminists are outraged that women are not being portrayed as equally vicious murderers. "We're just as capable of deviously ruthless stonecold killers!" sniffed the blogosphere.

          2. stanimir

            Re: So which is it?

            The nude mods/packs usually cost extra.

          3. Preston Munchensonton
            Paris Hilton

            Re: So which is it?

            "And £9.99 for the version with clothing that amounts to more than a bikini..."

            Per month, obviously...ahem.

    2. Purple-Stater

      Re: So which is it?

      Multiple male characters are not an issue as even though they might look different in multi-player due to external differences (i.e., skins), the basic framework of the character is identical. Hence, no additional development needed.

      A second body type would require doubling that part of the development cycle, regardless of the sex of that character.

      1. Matt 21

        Re: So which is it?

        What about the ability to have a wheelchair using avatar, or a blind avatar or one wearing women's clothes? What about one with one arm, or one leg or.........

        Personally I can't see what the big deal is, I can't remember being able to play Tomb Raider as a man.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    non story

    A lot of people on El reg work in IT. This story of extra costs rings true.

    No-one ever wanted a female mario or female sonic.

    The guy sounds reasonable, they wanted a female character but realised the costs.... simple.

    Does anyone really think we live in a world where someone at a game company decided to scarp a female player because they are sexist. Sounds like the media were looking for something to get upset about.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: non story

      Wholly agree.

      Further, I'm intrigued to know whether the people who are crying sexism believe that the 'extra development' argument is false.

      It looks obviously true to me, so I'm intrigued to know if anyone disagrees and why.

      If they don't, what are the grounds for claiming sexism? I don't remember being able to play a man in Tomb Raider...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: non story

        " I don't remember being able to play a man in Tomb Raider..."

        No, you got to play as a male w*nk fantasy instead.

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: non story

          "No, you got to play as a male w*nk fantasy instead."

          I don't know about you, but a badass with a pair of .45s and a worse attitude isn't any wank fantasy of mine...

      2. Kane

        Re: non story

        The Tomb Raider reboot multiplayer mode had male avatars that you could select IIRC, however all of the selectable avatars were based on the in-game models from the single player campaign.

      3. Dr. Ellen
        Facepalm

        Re: non story

        Damned if they do, and damned if they don't. With no female characters, they are cursed for having no female characters. If they DID have female characters, they'd be cursed for objectifying them, or their clothes, or whatever.

    2. John Bailey

      Re: non story

      "A lot of people on El reg work in IT. This story of extra costs rings true."

      No it doesn't.

      "No-one ever wanted a female mario or female sonic."

      No one ever played a mario or sonic game that was a proper RPG, with customisable characters.

      In games of this type however, it's the norm. Not just two genders, but multiple body types/species/heads/voices/outfits..

      "The guy sounds reasonable, they wanted a female character but realised the costs.... simple.!"

      Not really..

      Female meshes abound. Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done. Near zero costs. In fact, the modelling for a single building probably would cost more.

      Other RPGs allow players to play which ever gender they like, AND which ever species they like, with individual animation styles for each species. Elves don't move like Dwarves, and mages don't lumber like big human barbarians.

      This is not a new and unusual thing. This is the default for RPGs. Even the free ones..

      So please.. cut the crap. A female option is not actually expensive.

      Hire some out of work actor to do the voice acting, and job done. Probably for less money than they pay forum stuffers.

      Something else is the excuse, but it ain't costs or animation complexity.

      Puritanical policy decision?

      Worries about ratings being tightened up to avoid impossibly over developed female stereotypes?

      Insecure male management?

      But cost and complexity.. Please.. The other one's got bells on.

      1. DavCrav

        Re: non story

        "Female meshes abound. Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done. Near zero costs. In fact, the modelling for a single building probably would cost more."

        I'm glad to know that you, John Bailey, knwo more about this guy's game than he does, and have decided that he is talking rubbish about the development of his own game.

        "Other RPGs allow players to play which ever gender they like, AND which ever species they like, with individual animation styles for each species. Elves don't move like Dwarves, and mages don't lumber like big human barbarians."

        If you have played Assassin's Creed you will have found that their characters do an awful lot more than the walking/running that RPG characters do. Indeed, lots of characters in the game are female, they are NPCs, and they can walk and run. What they cannot do is climb up buildings, run over taut ropes, etc., and these are *not* going to be in the standard "female meshes".

        "So please.. cut the crap. A female option is not actually expensive. Hire some out of work actor to do the voice acting, and job done. Probably for less money than they pay forum stuffers."

        Oh, you mean an expense. There's the first one. You conveniently ignore the fact that they need several voiceover actors for the various localizations, but anyway.

        "Insecure male management?"

        So please...cut the crap. Unless you work for Ubisoft or have an in-depth knowledge of how *this* game is programmed you can't decide to ignore his explanation and cast significant aspersions on his character, that he is so insecure that he cannot let women play as women in a computer game? Does your head actually think the thoughts you write, or are your fingers connected to some random thought generator?

        1. Rob

          Re: non story

          "Does your head actually think the thoughts you write, or are your fingers connected to some random thought generator?"

          I think his arse cheeks are wrapped round his head which might have interfered with his thought processes, it's the only explanation I can think of for the crap he just spewed forth.

      2. Jesrad

        Re: non story

        "Female meshes abound. Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done."

        A fine job indeed, too, if you assume the long, tedious, extra work of remaking the textures for that mesh, and also for every single apparel option, accessory, weapon, etc. that comes in the game and will combine with it - unless you're fine with insulting every female gamer in the world with a very non-matching texture of a guy's face and musculature superimposed (and way off) over a gal's body...

        A fine job, yes, surely, with a wrong-scaled mesh that will look silly using animations made for a mesh where the joints are off, the bones are different length, the centers of mass (and thus, inertia of body in movement) are off, the attachment nodes for weapons and accessories are off and the wrong scale, etc.

        A "female" character with very male grunt sounds when jumping, falling, hurting, etc. With lots of silly clipping, 90s style, with feet hovering off ground or ankle-deep in it depending on the action, "roller-skating" on invisible free-wheels as it walks and runs, with hands that lift or grab things at a distance by magic and wobbly fuse into walls and scales when climbing, etc. A testament to the long-standing quality of character animation in the Assassin's Creed series, indeed.

        Mr Bailey I'm afraid you know very little of the video-game industry. I'm afraid you also know very little about female gamers, because offering a satisfactory variety of options for dressing a female character takes a LOT more work than just than fiddling with a male mesh and adjusting some proportions. And few things scream "shoddy" louder to girls than seeing leg / skirt polygon clipping on female characters in 3D videogames.

      3. Lamont Cranston

        Re: "Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done"

        You left out the months of research and physics modelling that is necessary to ensure that their oversized breasts bounce in the appropriate fashion.

        1. Dave Bell

          Re: "Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done"

          There's plenty of modeling, for both games and comics, which leaves me with a feeling that people do their research from porn videos.

        2. War President
          Paris Hilton

          Re: "Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done"

          Quite. The polygon count would go up at a staggering rate, plus, how many of us have graphics cards that can handle B00bPhysX?

          Paris, since we're talking about boobs...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: "Add an extra mesh option with the same animation rigs, and job done"

            "B00bPhysX"

            Damn you for reminding me of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball...

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: non story

        "No one ever played a mario or sonic game that was a proper RPG, with customisable characters."

        The Assassin's Creed series of games are not "a proper RPG, with customisable characters" by any stretch of the imagination.

    3. dan1980

      Re: non story

      @jeremy 3

      EXACTLY.

      One of my default positions is to suspect incompetence and laziness before malicious intent. I do so because, in my experience, people of the former stripe are far more common than those of the latter. Likewise, it seems far more likely that there were hawkishly observed pennies than a cabal of evil men out to foist a patriarchal ideal onto the public.

      Capitalism has one great benefit - money is colour-blind. Okay, so that's more about race but the same is true for gender. If money can be made or saved, it will be.

      It's not sexist - in fact it's utterly non-discriminatory. The only question that is being asked is: "how do we best use our limited budget to gain the most profit?".

      If the answer was: "spend money making a female avatar for MP" then you can be assured there would be a female avatar for MP. If it was "have a female lead" then there would be a female lead.

      There's no way for a manufacturer to be LESS sexist that simply following the money. If that course leads to an outcome that is considered sexist then that reflects on society more than the developers, publishers and financial backers.

    4. big_D Silver badge

      Re: non story

      Yep, it was not sexist, just that they had a male model finished, because they needed one for the story. Then they looked at making another avatar, this time in female form and looked at how expensive it is to make avatar and how long it would take to make another avatar and decided against it.

      The fact that the second avatar would have been female is neither here nor there, it could have been a Vogon or Vorlon, it would all have cost the same - well, the shapeless Vorlon cloak might have saved on costs, but it is sparkly...

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: non story

      "No-one ever wanted a female mario or female sonic."

      Are you sure?! How do you know?

      Not a single girl gamer in all their years ever stuck in front of an NES wishing they could play as "Super Maria". Not a single one? Not a single one wondering why the only girl in the whole game is princess that constantly needs rescuing? Amazing.

      1. Sir Sham Cad

        Re: Super Maria

        My younger (female) cousins had this:

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Giana_Sisters

        And, yes, you could play as "Maria"

    6. Dave Bell

      Re: non story

      Oh, it can all be made quite reasonable.

      The trouble is that, especially when social media get involved, a great many people start putting out sexist insults. Ask why Ubisoft have done this, and you will be insulted, but only if you're using an apparently female identity.

      There is an Assassin's Creed game which has a woman as protagonist. There have been women as recurring characters. So the argument isn't about doing something new. There's a suspicion that the people who made the decisions have a bias. And there is a lot of growing resentment, on both sides. There are people expressing opinions, and there are teenagers.

      Some people have been getting verbose about Tomb Raider, and I think a part of the whole issue is that the technology is good enough for the game protagonists to pass as people. Recent instances of these long-running series are becoming quite movie-like, and we want something more than a string of action scenes. Stories matter.

      In some of this I am reminded of such things as the Wing Commander series.

      But go look at what's on TV. In many ways, something like GTA5, while it makes the criminals the protagonists, is a long way behind TV Drama. How long before we get something that does for games what Lynda La Plante did for TV crime drama?

    7. Oninoshiko

      I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou.

      "No-one ever wanted a female mario or female sonic."

      A VARY brief search of the internet proves this completely wrong. Just google "female mario" or "female sonic" with safe-search off. Go on, I dare you.

    8. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: non story

      Christ, it's not hard.

      It's not like this guy is sat there thinking "How can we undermine women today? I know, I won't allow playable female characters in the new Assassins Creed game! Mwah-ha-ha-haaa!" No-one does that. At least not mostly.

      What makes it sexist is that they don't care enough about providing a way to represent people who comprise more than half the population.

      I suspect the intent behind the statement was phrased really badly but the fact you don't think it's sexist that someone can make a commercial decision on a product intended for a general audience without caring enough about representing half that audience suggests to me you should think about what the word means a bit more deeply. It's not just active sexism that's the issue but the representational blindness that leads to bone headed statements like this.

  3. Paul 98

    Creating two genders of characters twice as expensive as creating one

    NEWS AT 11, SHOCKER!

    1. Ron B

      Re: Creating two genders of characters twice as expensive as creating one

      It's more than twice as expensive. The writers need to write, and the voice actors need to record three times the dialog, and developers need two to five times the attire, accessories, hair styles, etc. Then there's all the makeup options to code into the face mask. "Twice" is a gross understatement.

  4. Eradicate all BB entrants

    They manage it exceptionally well ....

    ..... in Mass Effect and Saints Row. Shepard can be male or female, The Saints leader can be male or female (with different accents too). Burt 'Motherf***ing' Reynolds can't be anything other than himself though.

    Never bothered with AC after playing the first one. Sat down expecting to be an assassin from the middle ages and found out that it's a fecking time travel dream. Bunch of arse.

    1. Roger B

      Re: They manage it exceptionally well ....

      And the last Call of Duty and Gears of War 3 and I think its there in Sunset Overdrive, also Dark Souls, Sega Bass Fishing, Red Dead Redemption MP, Parts of Batman Arkham City, Fable 2 and 3 I think? Cheap developers being lazy, makes it easier not to chose Ubisoft games in the future though.

      Also, as posted by Gabe Miller on Vine

      https://vine.co/v/MjHweVipWEX

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Double the visual assets

    Chortle.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Any fule architect kno this

    With free SketchUp any architect-schmarchitect can model a guy-looking figure - a few triangles and a few rectangles.

    For a female-looking figure, you'd need Rhino, possibly Grasshopper, and more of a clue than your average architect.

    Cheap buildings: boxes. Expensive buildings: curves.

    This is not sexist, this is geometry.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Any fule architect kno this

      Not just the static art - getting the movement physics right is also going to be more complex.

      This reminds me of the old anecdote as to why a ship is called "she."

      Curves = expensive. True on so many levels... ;)

      AC always a good idea!

  7. Zane
    Thumb Up

    So women deserve higher pay

    I did not think about it before, but now it has become clear that women are just more expensive than men due to geometrical reasons. I'm so sorry for having had silly ideas about the reasons before - now I understand the poor creatures just can't do anything about it.

    So consequently, women need higher pay than men.

    /Zane

    1. deadlockvictim

      Re: So women deserve higher pay

      Zane» So consequently, women need higher pay than men.

      Let us compromise and say broadly that they ought to get paid better than what they are getting at the moment.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So women deserve higher pay

        So consequently, women need higher pay than men.

        No this is why traditionally men pay for the date, that's where the first layer of additional expenses come.

        Then in some cultures you have the bride price, where the grooms family pays the family of the wife so they can join their family, another additional expense of women over men :P

      2. John Sanders
        WTF?

        Re: So women deserve higher pay

        """Let us compromise and say broadly that they ought to get paid better than what they are getting at the moment."""

        Can you give us examples of where women are paid less than men for doing the same work?

        1. deadlockvictim

          Re: So women deserve higher pay

          Alas, I don't have any figures offhand.

          In the spirit of compromise, I was talking about the big picture, wherein women as a whole are paid less than men as whole. If that means more women in senior positions and more men in junior positions, then that is the price to be paid for the compromise. However, this won't change drastically without major social upheaval.

          My guess is that in most organisations those who are less pushy get paid less than those who are more pushy. Or rather, lal start out more or less the same and the pushier or more ambitious ones get pay rises more often because they are an arse about it. And women tend to be in the less pushy category.

          1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

            Re: So women deserve higher pay

            Coming into play are also carreer choices. Although _some_ women aggressively pursue carreer advancement more than, say, family and "quality time with the kids", there are massively more women taking part-time or less-demanding jobs to care for their kids. I'm not suggesting it's Teh Wymyn sacred duty to "sacrifice" their carreer to care for the kids, just that a lot do. Of course then that is reflected in gross pay... and it's not generally because of the employer. Call it "social pressure" or "because they fucking demand it"*.

            *If it's any indication, look at divorce cases: how many men are willing to give up on the kids' custody... and how many women? Of course that could still be social pressure at work, I suppose, if you try hard enough to crowbar it in.

    2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: So women deserve higher pay

      "that women are just more expensive than men due to geometrical reasons.... So consequently, women need higher pay than men."

      You got it wrong - women are more expensive, therefore men need higher pay so they could afford the women...

  8. Tom 7

    makehuman

    you can knock up women just as easily as men - but it the coders are all into women I guess they may spend more time knocking up than necessary.

    1. deadlockvictim
      Trollface

      Re: makehuman

      Tom7» you can knock up women just as easily as men

      Are men easily knocked up? I thought that that was a peculiarly female complaint.

      Boom, tish.

    2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: makehuman

      "but it the coders are all into women I guess they may spend more time knocking up than necessary."

      Or so they would wish...

  9. DrXym

    Understandable I guess

    If you give people the choice of sexes for the main protagonist then the developers have to record hundreds of hours of the identical dialogue for both sexes. In every supported language (English, Spanish, French, German etc.). And motion capture too. And two sets of cutscenes if it's fmv. And get the engine to cope regardless of models used. It probably is a logistical headache.

    But Ubisoft could choose a female protagonist more often than it does. The AC series has had one spinoff with a female lead (for the PS Vita) but otherwise it's just some lunk doing pretty much the same thing from one historical setting to the next.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Understandable I guess

      Do these people not know how to use computers or something? Text to voice is more than good enough for most games and its easy to switch the base voice from male to female and most of the users wouldn't know the difference.

      I think the real problem here is not that its more expensive to create a female character but they realise that the target market is wrong but they cant really say 'I'm sorry our target audience are not interested'

      1. joeldillon

        Re: Understandable I guess

        'Text to voice is more than good enough for most games' - really? Are you trolling?

        1. wowfood

          Re: Understandable I guess

          Somebody set up us the bomb.

          Main screen turn on

          All your base are belong to us

          You have no chance to survive make your time.

          Move ZIG

          For great justice.

          Text to speech will never be as good as this. Ever.

      2. Gary Riches

        Re: Understandable I guess

        "Text to voice is more than good enough for most games" - What the absolute, fucking fuck?

      3. Fibbles
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: Understandable I guess

        "Text to voice is more than good enough for most games"

        New keyboard please.

      4. stanimir

        Re: Understandable I guess

        Text to voice is more than good enough for most games and its easy to switch the base voice from male to female and most of the users wouldn't know the difference.

        I can clearly bet you'd not make a lead designer for any game with more than a few hundred quids budget.

        Also I bet you'd think any cartoons film can just skip voice actors and use text-to-voice.

    2. Dave Bell

      Re: Understandable I guess

      That particular game got ported over and released through some download channels, early this year. I don't recall seeing any mention of it until this row exploded into the open. Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD is the title.

      I'm surprised it took this long. There's nothing in the genetic memory thing to justify it, and a heck of a lot of women want to play computer games.

      Maybe they should check the office fridge?

      1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

        Re: Understandable I guess

        > and a heck of a lot of women want to play computer games.

        Soooo... a lot of women want to play, only they can't because the only playable character is male. What you're saying is that women can't play a male character. At this point I feel compelled to ask: have you ever met any gamer woman? Or any woman? Or any gamer, for that matter?

  10. Rocket_Rabbit
    Paris Hilton

    All that 'jiggling' that women do requires more processing power and more polygons....waaaaaaaaaay more polygons!

    Paris even though she's lacking somewhat in the polygon department.

  11. Crisp

    And here I was thinking that complex physics was the problem

    After all, how much GPU power do you spend on making sure that breasts bounce just right?

    1. D@v3

      Re: And here I was thinking that complex physics was the problem

      easily solved. Give them less 'assets'. Also being assassins and needing to stay inconspicuous, I would expect them to be fairly well covered, (not the normal level of dress for female characters) and well fitted clothes would probably help with all the running climbing and Assassing...

    2. Fibbles

      Re: And here I was thinking that complex physics was the problem

      The traditional method for getting appropriately animated breasts is to bone them.

  12. James Howat

    Unfortunate phrasing

    What they meant to say, what they were trying to say, is that "creating two protagonist characters is twice the work." It's just unfortunate that they wrote it as, "we were going to have the option of playing a woman, and decided it wasn't worth the effort."

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A dev's p.o.v

    Hi,

    I work for one of the major game developers. I'm totally in favour of greater female representation; Christ we need it. Here, though, are some reasons why female characters rarely figure.

    Modelling and texturing geometry is relatively cheap; that's not the issue. What makes it way more expensive is that you need to create a new skeleton hierarchy to drive that geo. That skeleton has different pivot points for narrower shoulders etc without which your female characters would look like a bad tranny.

    Once you introduce a new skeleton type into a game there is a phenomenal amount of cost associated with that. If you're sensible all the animations in the game will play on that new skeleton, but there will be major issues such as hands not holding guns, since the bones are different lengths, or heels not behaving well with the ground plane. A large number of real time systems need to be used to correct these issues, but it gets pretty complicated pretty fast.

    You will probably need complete replacements of animation sets for movement, climbing etc. Some systems such as hand to hand combat might need to be designed to cope with a female grappling a male and vice versa. The last game I worked on had over 25,000 animations. Each one needs to be lovingly authored to work with each other.

    All of this costs a lot of money, which results in one decision being made, and here's the crux, usually late in the day. Do we drop the ability to do 'X' even though it's really fun, so we can support female variations/interactions for Y and Z? That decision frequently goes in favour of dropping female variations altogether, since people who make games usually make them for one reason above all others. To make fun games. And fun beats diversity nine times out of ten in the world of games production, which mostly is made up on the hoof. That last point is worth underlining.

    There are some devs out there that really understand the power of strong female characters. Look to something like The Last of Us by Naughty Dog for an example of a stunning game with compelling male and female characters. To achieve that takes meticulous planning from the outset, which I can tell you rarely happens. And this is the real problem behind all of this; shoddy planning, not sexism.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: A dev's p.o.v

      So what you're saying is that the game engine per se requires a lot of work to provide an alternative avatar. So... an opportunity is there for someone who comes up with a more versatile char engine.

    2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: A dev's p.o.v

      I read that as "institutionalised sexism" (not thinking about women from the outset) rather than misogyny.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. John Sanders
      Trollface

      Re: A dev's p.o.v

      """That skeleton has different pivot points for narrower shoulders etc without which your female characters would look like a bad tranny."""

      Discrimination against "transexuals" alert!

      Sorry I could not avoid it!

      1. TrishaD

        Re: A dev's p.o.v

        "Discrimination against "transexuals" alert!"

        No, nio ... I'll just sit here cracking my knuckles and looking menacing ...

        Anyway - was this sexist? Almost definitely not by intention. It was however hugely cack-handed (much more so than the 'broad-shouldered bad tranny' comment - speaking as I do as a broad-shouldered tranny). It implyies that 50% of the human population dont really matter. Which I'm pretty sure wasnt his intention. Engage brain before opening mouth would seem good practice.

        That aside, there do seem to be quite a lot of female gamers, and quite a lot of those female gamers like to play female avatars. And on the global stage, 'quite a lot'='a lot' at least as far as cash is concerned.

        Dumb move.

    4. Dave Bell

      Re: A dev's p.o.v

      Thanks for this summary.

      I can go for bad planning being a part of this.

      I write stuff. It's interesting to look at a character and wonder why I've inserted yet another default man, and often not too hard to change. But you've explained why that change is a huge amount of work in a computer game.

  14. OzBob
    Joke

    Even with all that GPU power

    you'd still end up waiting for ages while she decided what to wear.

    1. John Sanders
      Thumb Up

      Re: Even with all that GPU power

      You just described a female relative of mine playing any game that offers customization.

      She spends more time drawing skins and changing dresses for her characters than playing the games.

      1. wowfood

        Re: Even with all that GPU power

        That's not just a female problem. I spent several hours customizing my Elder Scrolls char to look exactly as I wanted him to, only so I would never really see their faces again. Likewise on most MMO which relatively good customization.

        I think I have a problem.

    2. kmac499

      Re: Even with all that GPU power

      Just add a Brassiere curve algortithm alngside the Bezier one in the GPU ..Simples

  15. John Sanders
    Flame

    PC stupidity again

    I demand a tomb raider game where I can change "Lara Croft" into "Laro Cruft"! Tomb Raider is discriminative!

    Political Correctness is going to kill us all!!!

    1. ADJB

      Re: PC stupidity again

      Correct, we demand equal opportunity assassins.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Headline is lie

    "Women are too expensive to draw and code – Ubisoft" - that's not what he's saying; he's saying adding a second character model to the one they've already got is outside his budget. Gender is not the issue. Whoever is trying to stir up a row about sexism over this needs to either find a different target or shut the f*ck up and get a proper job.

    1. wowfood

      Re: Headline is lie

      He already has a proper job, that's what journalists do these days. All it was missing was the word SHOCK! at the beginning of it and it could have passed as newspaper worthy.

  17. Phil W

    Simple Solution

    The simple solution would be to create a female character called Arna, who is a very masculine looking, flat chested, female assassin with a very deep voice.

  18. Silviu C.

    Bollocks

    Dude who used to work for Ubisoft says it's all BS:

    http://l.gamespot.com/1pLY8qS

  19. banjomike
    Happy

    double the visual assets

    Well, I should hope so...

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My experience of male/female ratio in gaming

    The highest female to male ratio I have ever seen on any fps/tps was 1 in 10, this based upon voice/name/chat.

    In my experience over many years I would say that for this type of game the people who want female avatars are not themselves female.

    Many female gamers have told me that they prefer male avatars, it might be so they do not stand out from the crowd, this as admitting you are a female gamer is an open invitation for sexual harassment, I do not know as I would never ask a male player to justify why they chose a female avatar either.

    The real question is why there is so much fuss about it, I would say tomb raider's success had little to do with encouraging female gamers but rather because some males who have difficulty with intersexual relations in real life wanted a non-threatening girl toy to play with.

    So for those who truly wish to see sexual equality in gaming, I suggest that you recognize that the majority of gamers bothered about this are males who wish to ogle female like avatars, basically an objectification of women.

    I am not looking for sexual stimulation in my gaming and the questions raised about the people who are seeking this are a matter for much more concern, to me at least

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: My experience of male/female ratio in gaming

      Then, the shark's lagoon is not for you.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: My experience of male/female ratio in gaming

      "I do not know as I would never ask a male player to justify why they chose a female avatar either."

      From a personal perspective, it's mostly an aesthetic choice... playing in a 3rd-person RPG, the typical view you have of your character is from behind. As a red-blooded heterosexual male, I simply prefer the aesthetic of a shapely female derriere with a big of a wiggle in her walk over spending the majority of my gaming experience with the rear end of a hefty bloke in the middle of my screen!

  21. Chad H.

    well, it least its more plausable than EA saying they cant have womens football teams in game as it would need a new physics engine.... I didnt realise that women had their own laws of relativity.

  22. heyrick Silver badge
    WTF?

    Hmm...

    Was farting around with GTA3:Liberty on my PS2 the other day (no, I'm not a gamer...) and I don't remember an option to change the protagonist to be female. Indeed, it's a fixed storyline so I don't think you can be anybody else at all.

    Some games support lots of customisation, others don't.

  23. Benjol

    I hope they also provided an option for a blind avatar, and one with a wheelchair, and...

  24. NomNomNom

    the industry is inherently sexist

  25. SVV

    Videogame sexism has een going on for years....

    I mean, I can even remember Ms Pac-Man, who surely should have been called Pac-Woman.

  26. Lars Silver badge
    Joke

    Perhaps

    Hemingway was sexist too as he newer wrote "The old woman and the sea".

  27. Bucky 2
    Trollface

    Easy Solution

    Women simply need to get their asses out of the kitchens and into the laboratories, where they belong!

    There. Problem solved.

    1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: Easy Solution

      > Women simply need to get their asses out of the kitchens and into the laboratories, where they belong!

      I happen to work in one (lab, not woman). The man/woman ratio at the moment is 3/14. Quite representative of the institute as a whole, too. Kitchens must be quite women-deprived in my part of the world*. Or maybe current policies and prejudices about women in the workplace are 50-years-old and not even remotely close to reality?

      *not a bad thing, as I'm the one doing the cooking at home, and guess what, shock horror, it's because I like it, and I'm hugely better at it than my resident other-gender kitchenmate, whose entire skillset in the matter boil down to "pop the frozen dinner into the microwave". Or is it sexist to point that out?

  28. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

    No wonder

    Skyrim was so bloody expensive .....

    Bella Roach..... mage, assassin and housewife ;)

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A Bad Idea

    They would have been better off just saying "Because it's our company and we can do as we please with our own product." All they've done in trying to explain their decision is to give feminists a clear target. Bad idea. They will regret this approach.

  30. This post has been deleted by its author

  31. ecofeco Silver badge

    Misogyny

    Misogyny. He haz it.

    Period.

  32. johnwerneken

    Too Funny for words

    No real people are in reality affected, except in their fantasy of placing some value on who appears to resemble whom. Feminists are racists on this issue - seeing folks as representatives of themselves or of a group and not as individuals.

  33. Paul J Turner

    Not the first group of lazy bastards...

    http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/frozen-head-of-animation-says-animating-women-is-really-really-difficult-89467.html

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In another interview he claim that he slipped up; he was on the spot and tried to give an answer, but it didn't reflect reality. The real answer is that even during the multiplayer game all the players are playing the very same character. The character can be customised to each player's playing preference, but it is still the very same character. This is the reason why the multiplayer part of the game doesn't include a female character.

    reference http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-12-i-understand-the-issue-but-its-not-relevant-in-assassins-creed-unity

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ubisoft vs. 4 guys from Guildford who created a true Elite space-shooter...

    This Ubisoft sorry tale reeks of yet another example of mega-studio failure....If AC was from an Indie then fair play! But its such a lacklustre excuse from a mega-studio. Maybe all these bloated studios should be broken up. They've become too fat, too complacent with all their sequels to ever do something as amazing as 'No Man's Sky'.

    Ok so I'm no fan of AC... I tried playing the original and recently AC-BF and got bored after 5 minutes.... Sorry, but the on-a-rail opening ship-fight with its crap QTR, and the chase afterwards was just bland and tired! Now maybe if Ubisoft created a procedural adventure game, with infinite countries or worlds, now that would be something...

  36. Phil_Evans

    Reality Check?

    My Gameplay borders on the furthest edge of obscurity, that is I probably enjoy something like an arcade game every Royal Abdication or so. But I can't help thinking about this that this guy has done the right thing.

    Say nothing - the game's fraternity might notice the difference. Are we talking sensual sub-conscious super-detailed physiological changes here or merely the rendering of an action figure in a game? I still laugh and walk away whe I see these games because the basic concept of running looks comical. Would the female figures appear any more butch than they would be as modelled by males? I somehow doubt it. Voices, ok, okayyy. And the company gets away with it - no dramas.

    Say what he's said - an honest Joe. If he was putting on a panto would there be moral outrage that a Mare Panto horse would be played by Males undeneath? Is there a difference?

    Thumbs up from me.

  37. RISC OS
    Mushroom

    double the visual assets...

    ... I like assets on a woman as much as the next man, but surely if they made them smaller they wouldn't need to double the assets to create females.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They sorted that on Hawx 2.

    All the females have identical flight suits to men. In fact you only know there is a female fighter pilot due to voice acting. I found that almost in a Tony Stark manner.

    Gameplay is what matters. It doesn't matter if you are a giant horned bull dude, a pony-tailed pink Gnome (I love that, to be honest, ruining my own argument) or an alien with no discernible genitals, but if the gameplay is great, who cares.

    River Raid and Enduro on Atari kick loads of ass up to this day, and were coded on nearly 1000 lines each.

    Apart from budget, I don't think they would prevent female assassins.

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