Former AC Dev: Adding Females Would Take ‘A Day or Two’

UPDATE: Ubisoft has issued a statement to Kotaku Australia in response to the controversy. The statement does not address the claims that the main reason behind the omission of female characters was that it was too much work, instead focusing on what Ubisoft has done in the past, and stating that Unity is focused on the main character, Arno.

“We recognize the valid concern around diversity in video game narrative. Assassin’s Creed is developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs and we hope this attention to diversity is reflected in the settings of our games and our characters.

Assassin’s Creed Unity is focused on the story of the lead character, Arno. Whether playing by yourself or with the co-op Shared Experiences, you the gamer will always be playing as Arno, complete with his broad range of gear and skill sets that will make you feel unique.

With regard to diversity in our playable Assassins, we’ve featured Aveline, Connor, Adewale and Altair in Assassin’s Creed games and we continue to look at showcasing diverse characters. We look forward to introducing you to some of the strong female characters in Assassin’s Creed Unity.”

ORIGINAL POST:

A former Assassin’s Creed developer has refuted the idea that adding females to Assassin’s Creed: Unity would have added significant work to the project.

In a series of posts to his Twitter account, Assassin’s Creed 3 animation director Jonathan Cooper said that contrary to claims made by AC: Unity creative director Alex Amancio, adding female assassins would be, “a day or two’s work.”

He went on state that Aveline de Grandpré (main character of Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation) uses many of the same animation as Connor Kenway (the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed 3).

The backlash against the decision to exclude playable female assassins in Unity’s co-op mode isn’t going away, and you have to wonder how long it will be before Ubisoft announces that they’ll be adding them prior to launch. My money is on the announcement happening before the end of E3.

You can keep up to date with all the E3 news over on our E3 channel.

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