14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has released a statement concerning the recent controversy regarding Assassin's Creed Unity, emphasizing that the title has strong female characters but they won't be playable.
Assassin's Creed Unity received a huge amount of details at E3 2014 this week, including the confirmation that the title can be experienced alone, while controlling a new character called Arno, but also with up to three other friends in the new cooperative mode, as they will all control other male assassins.
Ubisoft revealed yesterday that Assassin's creed Unity simply doesn't have assassins of a female gender because it didn't have time to come up with animations and other such things.
Considering that the publisher has not one, but nine teams working on unity, this excuse didn't go so well, causing a big controversy online.
The publisher has now clarified its stance on gender diversity, emphasizing that the development team behind Unity is quite diverse and that the game will focus on Arno, telling his own story.
"We recognize the valid concern around diversity in video game narrative. Assassin's Creed is developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs and we hope this attention to diversity is reflected in the settings of our games and our characters," Ubisoft said.
"Assassin's Creed Unity is focused on the story of the lead character, Arno. Whether playing by yourself or with the co-op Shared Experiences, you the gamer will always be playing as Arno, complete with his broad range of gear and skill sets that will make you feel unique."
The publisher has also emphasized that it encouraged diversity through a wide array of playable assassins in the past, such as Aveline in Liberation, Connor in Assassin's Creed 3, Adewale in Freedom Cry, or Altair in the original title.
"With regard to diversity in our playable Assassins, we've featured Aveline, Connor, Adewale and Altair in Assassin's Creed games and we continue to look at showcasing diverse characters. We look forward to introducing you to some of the strong female characters in Assassin's Creed Unity."
Considering Assassin's Creed Unity is set to debut this October, Ubisoft has some time to prove that it cares about women and that it will better represent them in future games, especially since another one of its fall blockbusters, Far Cry 4, was set to get a female co-op mode character but ended up skipping it.
Unity launches for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.