Why it is wrong to not have female assassins in Assassin's Creed: Unity

First, let me start this off by saying that no, I'm not going to cry sexism. It's the low hanging fruit of this discussion, and really it isn't the reason why there are no women in Assassin's Creed: Unity. I know, many blogs and commentary pieces are going to beat that horse until the meat is mashed into the turf.

No, the real issue here is that it showcases UbiSoft's slide back from creative and diverse developer to shovelware distribution house. Assassin's Creed, as a franchise, has been bent over the table and thoroughly used in the most foul of ways to make a buck. And while there have been shining moments, overall each new entry has gone further from the original concept of the game in order to include other elements to be more "popular", or to have "broader appeal."

It's the same road that led them to turn Deux Ex into an app, rather than producing a sequel worthy of the series. It's the concept that the game would do better if we do what everyone else is doing. It's the creative void that has sucked the innovation and fun out of gaming, and leading us to have cloned franchises that run concurrent sequels year after bloody year.

So why would women be excluded? Because, quite literally, they were too busy tweaking the male characters in order to cater to whom they see the game appealing. They wanted to allow customization, which is shorthand for "We need a way to squeeze micro-transactions in here". Rest assured, there will be a customizable appearance system where part will be unlocks, and the rest either incentives for pre-order or purchasable content.

I am willing to bet that you will have every race of man available, with tons of different outfits, paperdoll style, to pick from. And during this process, they either considered the frat boy survey that was used build buzz around the time games like Remember Me and The Last of Us came us, or, more likely, simply decided to invest in a bankable idea.

Everyone likes the Assassin's Creed visual style. Cosplayers the world over do it up. Hoodies are sold by the dozen bearing the look. It's marketable, and gives you a great way to give all your distributors exclusive content without a ton of effort. However, doing double duty for the art department wasn't priority, it would lower the margins some, and not gain much money.

It's games as a business trumping games as a medium. That's the true evil. It's the same reason a gay lead won't do for an UbiSoft games. In an interview, Lucien Soulban, an openly gay writer for UbiSoft Montreal, stated that we won't see gay heroes "... for a while, I suspect, because of fears that it'll impact sales." There it is. Not a bias because gay heroes are icky. Because it could cost them dollars and cents at the cash.

That's what this is. Not sexism, it's that good old bugbear of packaged goods guys running the show, rather than a creative, open mind wanting to experiment and risk in the medium. So the next time a feminist says that gaming is sexist and mentions UbiSoft, correct them. This isn't about women, it's about money.