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Gerade in einem Artikel von Jason Schreier gelesen. Man hatte vor, Bayek früh sterben zu lassen und Aya als Assassine auf Ägypten loszulassen und Kassandra wurde ja schon oft als Kanon-Charakter bestätigt, Alexios als spielbarer Charakter musste dazu gemacht werden, weil laut Ubisoft keiner Spiele mit weiblichen Hauptfiguren kauft.
Deswegen fehlt in Beyond Good & Evil z.B. auch Jade aus dem Vorgänger.
The machismo of Ubisoft’s offices seeps into the company’s games, current and former employees say. Ubisoft’s biggest franchise is Assassin’s Creed, a series of open-world action-adventure games in which players explore historic settings and sneak around killing people. Most games in the series star male protagonists. This has been a point of contention as far back as 2014, when an Ubisoft creative director said Assassin’s Creed Unity wouldn’t let people play online as female characters because “it was really a lot of extra production work” to add women’s clothing and animations to the game.
Deswegen fehlt in Beyond Good & Evil z.B. auch Jade aus dem Vorgänger.
The machismo of Ubisoft’s offices seeps into the company’s games, current and former employees say. Ubisoft’s biggest franchise is Assassin’s Creed, a series of open-world action-adventure games in which players explore historic settings and sneak around killing people. Most games in the series star male protagonists. This has been a point of contention as far back as 2014, when an Ubisoft creative director said Assassin’s Creed Unity wouldn’t let people play online as female characters because “it was really a lot of extra production work” to add women’s clothing and animations to the game.
For the next game, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, an early outline of the script gave equal screen time to the twin protagonists, Jacob and Evie, according to three people who worked on the project. In the end, Jacob dominated the game. Assassin’s Creed Origins, released in 2017, was originally going to injure or kill off its male hero, Bayek, early in the story and give the player control of his wife, Aya, according to two people who worked on it. But Aya’s role gradually shrank over the course of development and Bayek became the leading figure.
Development of 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey went much the same way. The game tells the story of siblings Kassandra and Alexios. The team originally proposed making the sister the only playable character, according to four people who worked on the game, until they were told that wasn’t an option. The final product gives players a choice between the two characters.
Current and former Ubisoft employees say these changes, which haven’t been previously reported, are illustrative of the sexism ingrained within the company. All of the directives came from Ubisoft’s marketing department or from Hascoët, both of whom suggested female protagonists wouldn’t sell, the developers say. This false perception has been commonly held in the video game industry for decades. It ignores hits such as the Tomb Raider series or Sony Corp.’s Horizon Zero Dawn, which sold more than 10 million copies.
Developers say they were compelled to make big compromises to avoid changes from Hascoët that might be detrimental to their project or result in outright cancellation. For example, Hascoët openly expressed disdain for linear storytelling and cut scenes, the interstitial videos that exist between gameplay to advance the narrative. The writers had to find ways to keep his attention, and often that involved installing a strong male lead, the employees say.
By 2019, though, there were signs Hascoët was losing his creative magic. Ubisoft released two big flops: The Division 2, an online game that failed to meet sales expectations despite critical acclaim, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint, a tactical shooter that was widely panned. Ubisoft had developed a reputation, in large part because of Hascoët, for releasing games with similar tropes: large, open-world environments giving the player a list of tasks to accomplish and checkpoints to clear. By the end of last year, Ubisoft’s stock declined more than 40% from its high a year earlier.
As a result of these failures, the company overhauled the editorial department, elevating seven vice presidents reporting to Hascoët. The goal was to distribute Hascoët’s power and diversify the games, employees say. All seven vice presidents were men. Béland and François were among those promoted, despite a history of misconduct complaints.
