The latest promotional video for Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive includes a subtle dig at Assassin’s Creed: Unity over the controversy regarding its lack of female characters in the story mode.
While Ubisoft spilled a lot of details regarding Assassin’s Creed: Unity at last week’s E3 presentation, pretty much all of it was drowned out by the reveal that the game would not feature playable female characters. The entire gaming communtiy weighed in on Ubisoft’s comments that designing additional female characters was too difficult (including some of our own writers), and the fallout hasn’t stopped yet.
In its latest YouTube video for its upcoming action game Sunset Overdrive, developer Insomniac Games has taken a subtle shot at Ubisoft’s recent woes. The video starts by discussing some of the traps you can use in the game but then, at around the 1:40 mark, the host takes a moment to address reader questions.
When a letter asks if players can be female characters, the host quickly answers yes, followed by a pan around of a gun-toting lady dressed in an outfit surprisingly similar to the white and red, hooded cloaks long used by the Assassin’s Creed protagonists. Given the timing of the video its hard to chalk this up to mere coincidence. “Self-expression is super important to us,” the host said, before announcing that all the clothing in the game will be gender-neutral. “If you want to be a dude in a skirt, you can be a dude in a skirt.” The video ends by encouraging the player to “take a stab at” character customization when the game releases.
While Assassin’s Creed: Unity has certainly brought the topic of diversity in games further into the limelight, gender-neutral options haven’t really been touched upon that much. Is this something you guys want to see more of in games? Let us know in the comments.
Source: YouTube
Published: Jun 20, 2014 10:15 pm