That's part of why I did not bother to make any real comment because the original commentary in the article seemed too artificial to take seriously. It's like feel good commentary, but virtually no substance.

Hey, I would not mind more female leads in games, sure... but it's not like we are in shortage of games to play or diversity in gaming. I would care more if the experiences end up being more cookie cutter, which I feel like it has really become that way in the industry.. they are right that they do need to adjust more to change and fast. Having female leads and bringing about more unexpected things would help all fronts... but honestly, it's not 'necessary' to engineer stuff so that we cater to only specific demographics or broaden out to expand to another base... we already have a demographic, it's called gamers.

hahaha, I love how women are the "core" now that some are playing a MS console, but when they played a Nintendo console, they were refered to as "teh stupid cazuals"

this is last gen though, if you say no, ask Wii and DS and Nintendo!

If the person making the quote actually mentioned kinect you probably would be on to something but since he did not say anything of the sort, I would guess you are off base.  I know its easy to knee jerk and throw Kinect into anything MS states that does not have a male dominant core appeal but it does not sound like this guy is talking hardware but just concepts.

As another poster mentioned, its actually the West that is so male centric because in places like Japan, its the women that rule game purchases and dominate the market in sales.  Women gamers in Japan are a huge gaming buying market.  With smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices getting games into more women hands, its only natural for any gaming company to start to respect woman as a market to pursue.

The reason for including Kinect 2 with the nextbox is the same reason Sony will include the next PSeye with the PS4.  If you want your piece of hardware supported by developers than it needs to be included with the device.  Its a pretty simple concept and its the reason the Wii included the Wiimote instead of a traditional controller.

Is Kinect MS entry to a wider audience, Yes.  It makes sense for MS to have a diverse console then to only cater to a shrinking core group.  MS doesn't want to be considered as a core console but a family console that caters to everyone in the home instead of just one person.  Sony wants the same thing and they have games that focus on those areas.  Actually the PS2 was pretty damn diverse console game wise and I believe Sony wants to get back that mojo.  Nintendo is already there but need more support fron third parties to keep content coming to their system.

So, if games are catered towards men and thats fine, why is it a problem designing games that cater to women.  In Japan this is done all the time and the market is huge, its the West that has fallen behind in this area where its a strange situation.

I don't think he's saying that woman are taking over the core or that MS is going to focus on woman or that he is even speaking about some big MS strategy to appeal to women. I think he is talking about woman playing the same games as men and writing stories that appeal to both. Just like TV and movies. You will always have the ones that are meant for men and the ones meant for woman. Shows like The Walking Dead, Mad Men, The Game of Thrones have cross-gender appeal. Those are big shows. This guy is just saying that there is a new gaming market that wants stuff that isn't just for men. He's right.

How many games can you tell me that released in the last 5 years featured a character that was not white.  Hell, I cannot remember the last game that featured a charater that was black or latino.  You can even get rarer if you go for Black Women or Latino women.  You can find tons of books, movies, TV shows, shorts that have a very diverse cast of leading women and ethic groups but it sure is hard to find that with games.  What the article seems to suggest is that its pretty obvious that any gender besides male and white is a rarity in games and thus so are the stories created for those games.

I wonder how well would Uncharted would have sold if the character was a Latino woman.  It definitely would be a lot more interesting story wise if the character was written by a latino women who could bring the character out.  Of course that character would never get a green light.

So Farmville coming to the 720 confirmed?

All the games with character builders like Mass Effect, Fable, Saints Row, Elderscrolls, etc. let the player choose their gender and race. I know it's not the same thing as Sam Fischer, Lara Croft, and Nathan Drake as the official leading characters of their games. But it does show that things are slowly moving forward and white men won't always be the main characters.

No it doesnt cause women dont need to play female characters just like men dont need to play only male characters.