Female Commander Shepard Will Be Promoted with Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 marks the end of the trilogy of games focusing on Commander Shepard, so BioWare, its developer, wants to properly feature the female version of the protagonist, not just the traditional male one.

BioWare is one of the few developers that actually lets players choose their genders in its games, but, usually, all of the marketing material, including video game box arts, covers, posters and more, focus just on the official male version.

The Mass Effect series is no exception, as BioWare always released trailers with a male Commander Shepard, even if the female version has a surprisingly large cult following, mainly due to the great voice acting provided by Jennifer Hale throughout the series.

In order to satisfy everyone, BioWare marketing director David Silverman has officially acknowledged that female Shepard will be getting some love with the upcoming release of Mass Effect 3.

According to his Twitter statements, via NeoGAF, the Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition will have a two-sided cover, one with male Shepard and another with the female version.

Silverman also confirmed that a trailer with a female Commander Shepard will also be made, but the development team has yet to agree on an official look for the character.

Seeing as how Mass Effect has a robust character creator, it's going to be pretty hard to agree on an official look for BioWare, in order to not disappoint the legions of female Shepard fans, but the standard female one, seen in the image above, isn't that bad.

Besides this unique cover with both Commanders, the N7 Collector's Edition was detailed earlier this week, and offers an array of real life items, from litographs to an N7 patch, as well as in-game virtual things like extra appearance options for your companions, enhanced weapons and armor, as well as a robotic dog that will hang around Shepard on his Normandy space ship.

Mass Effect 3 is out for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 6, 2012.