Lol touché, cloud dressed up well too

Microsoft has been smoking some good shit

Perfect Dark is not in the same category as COD. It's an action adventure game. It's problem is that it was ported from N64 and most of the gamers back then still had N64 and their PD and Goldeneye. Nobody gives a damn about a lead character in my opinion. Look at ME3 where most of the videos on youtube feature female Shep. I just won't buy a female character on Gears of War unless they make her look just like Marcus Phoenix or Cole Train. People are taking this discussion way out of the context.
 

They never fail us, that Microsoft!

stop with stereotypes and sexism.

You can play with the Wii U tablett when you are in the kitchen,or the vita or 3ds.

I can imagine it is very interessting to play cooking mama while cooking.

They were launch games and was never expected to sell millions for starters.  I would also like to point out that they didnt do well because they wasn't amazing games.  It has nothing to do with the lead characters.

Mrs Splosionman is also a 1st party female protagonist and sold well.  All this shows is gamers regardless of gender likes good games. 

The magic of the Wii U, you can play in the kitchen and the laundry room!

It's an interesting comment. While the majority of gamers are currently women....

the majority of console/handheld gamers are not.

Except I think for the PSP oddly enough. 

1) This article has nothing to do with Kinect. Don't inject Kinect into this discussion because of the picture. The article is about women being a resurgent focus of game developers.

2) Neither Kameo nor Perfect Dark: Zero did bad because the protagonist was female. PDZ did bad because there were control/game play issues with the game. Kameo did poorly because it was geared more toward kids on a platform that had garnered a teen-young adult male following. Their review scores didn't help matters.

3) Every generation there is an attempt to capitalize on female gamers. Every generation it starts out strong and then tapers out. Kameo and PDZ are both perfect examples of this. Towards the end of the previous generation Microsoft made similar attempts to create a resurgence in development of female centric game development. Microsoft is a diverse company, made up of both males and females, the Xbox team consists of both male and female gamers. Compare that to most Japanese companies. Microsoft has an interest in not only developing a broad array of games, but fostering that development throughout the industry.

4) The challenge of efforts to foster development of games centered on women and girls is that it can backfire. For example: Barbie's Horse Adventures. A game that was neither good, nor beneficial. If, as others have mentioned, the game isn't a compelling game with a good, interesting story, the game will flop.

In this respect, I don't see Kameo as a flop. It was a good game that didn't do well. Had it gotten a sequel, had that sequel been longer, it might have continued as a strong series for the Xbox 360 and beyond. I do see Perfect Dark Zero as a bit of a flop. The game, from what I understand, although reasonably good reaches a point where it breaks down in game play. Unlike PDZ, Kameo didn't already have an audience. It was a new IP. The fact that it didn't do particularly well, isn't that surprising. The problem was PDZ. PDZ had a built-in audience, the previous players of the game. Had the game been better. A better story with better game play, it would have done much better. The protagonist in the game had no impact on the enjoyment of the game, the game itself did.

5) I think this is a Jerry McGuire moment. For those who understand the reference, the memo. An attempt to position ones-self separate from the core industry to point out a deficiency within the whole. The problem is women don't want to be a special, marginalized group. As one other commenter pointed out, they just want good games including some that feature female protagonists.

What the original article discusses is a worthy topic. Both Eastern and Western games need to feature a broader range of gamers, rather than simply being white male centric. Japanese games have often gotten away with it because the protagonists are often gender ambiguous in look. Women can identify with them, as well as men. In Western games however that isn't so much the case.

Lionhead, by far, made the most progress in this generation with expanding the boundaries. Fable II (I haven't played Fable III) gave gamers the ability to choose their characters ( a feature also available in other PRGs) but went above in allowing those characters to develop and participate in sexual relationships with both male and female NPCs. Those characters could also even change gender if they so desired.

With that said the take-away from this should be, "We as game developers need to broaden our audience with protagonists that include the wide array of gamers who buy and play our video games."

If anything the "core" gamers are both genders now. It would be nice if more games had female leads though, Tomb Raider seems to have done it well over the years.