Activision denies "lose the chick" allegation
Refutes accusations that gender of True Crime character was changed following focus-testing
Publisher Activision is fending off claims that it has mandated against its games having female leads.
A report by Gamasutra cites unrevealed sources as alleging the lead character of the upcoming True Crime: Hong Kong (formerly known as Black Lotus) was forcibly changed to a male.
Unnamed Activision employees are quoted as claiming "they don't do female characters because they don't sell" and that "Activision gave us specific direction to lose the chick."
The report's sources further contend that developers' creative wishes have been hampered and projects interfered with as a result of the publisher observing market trends and "extreme" focus-grouping.
"If someone from publishing has a point to prove or can't get an idea in the game, the focus test questions are skewed, and the Activision feedback is skewed in their favour," one male source apparently purported.
"If Activision does not see a female lead in the top five games that year, they will not have a female lead," another deep-throat was quoted as alleging. "And the people that don't want a female lead will look at games like Wet and Bayonetta and use them as 'statistics' to 'prove' that female leads don't move mass units."
The publisher has firmly refuted all these allegations. "Activision respects the creative vision of its development teams," said in an official statement to the report's author.
"The company does not have a policy of telling its studios what game content they can develop, nor has the company told any of its studios that they cannot develop games with female lead characters. With respect to True Crime: Hong Kong, Activision did not mandate the gender of the lead character."
Activision also denied the accusations of skewed focus-grouping. "Like all other game and media companies, Activision uses market research in order to better understand [what] gamers are looking for."