Female Gears of War protagonist 'hard to justify' says Epic

February 15, 2013 10:38AM PST

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Art director Chris Perna says idea for female hero is "interesting," but unlikely due to negative sales implications.

Gears of War 3 brought female playable characters to the franchise for the first time, but it is unlikely that a lady would ever be a protagonist in a future installment.

 

That's according to Epic Games art director Chris Perna, who told OXM that a future Gears of War game with a female lead would hurt the title's sales potential.

"That's certainly interesting but I don't know," Perna said. "If you look at what sells, it's tough to justify something like that."

Perna also spoke about positive reactions female gamers have had to Epic's portrayal of women in past Gears of War titles at cosplay events.

"They feel empowered," he said. "They put on that armor and they walk around with these massive weapons and I think they get a kick out of it; I get a kick out of seeing it.

"From what we've heard, when they play the game they feel empowered and they feel good," Perna added. "Some of the feedback I've heard from women that I talk to is that if we'd made these women more feminine and more stereotypical it wouldn't have been so nice."

Gears of War: Judgment launches March 19 exclusively on Xbox 360. For more, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

well, he is speaking the truth after all. even though i would like to see more games that the main character isnt a man.

kind of surprised My Angelina doesn't  disagree :P lol

Gears is a Bro game. It would kinda change the dynamic.

But also, it goes against the lore, in which most women were meant to have babies to keep the population up.

LOOL im just gonna ignore that haha. but dont get me wrong, i actually am looking closely at tomb raider because she is a female character. honestly though i want to see more games where the main character isnt even human at all. i think that would make up some interesting gameplay because it would open doors for the character to do things that humans cant do. just imagine that your playing a sci fi game where your the alien. extra strenght, ability to climb on walls, melee attatcks with the tail or bitting a suckers head off. it could also open HUGE ways to explore the world and univerise since the characters traits are much different than humans. an open world game where im an alien on an alien planet? COUNT ME IN!

If it is only "most" women that need to breed constantly, then it wouldn't go against the lore. Maybe she's sterile. :P

forget your GEARS history, or are you not a fan? the sterile women fought, so it wouldn't take away the lore. it fits right into the GEARS universe.

Yaya I guess. Gears is still a Bro game though.

b*_*bs

well can't argue that.