MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
New IP is all too rare in the modern market. New IP with a female lead character is rarer still.
Capcom has this morning used its Gamescom presentation to reintroduce its Remember Me IP, which was shown off last year under the name Adrift. The game is being developed by French studio Dontnod Entertainment and is scheduled for a May 2013 release.
It’s set in a near-future Paris at approaching the end of the 21st century and stars Nilin, a law enforcement officer of sorts whose agency has turned against her, wiping her memory.
It’s all very Deus Ex meets Mirror’s Edge”. Which is clearly a fantastic combination.
She joins an embarrassingly stunted list of modern video game leads. For every success such as Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, Chun Li of Street Fighter and Metroid’s Samus Aran there’s a forgotten contender – Faith of Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword’s Nariko, Beyond Good & Evil’s Jade or Wet’s Rubi Malone.
Nilin’s high-profile Gamescom appearance comes at a time when femininity is a hot topic in the games industry.
Questions are increasingly being asked about the established boys club that is gaming, with both the press and consumers proving more sensitive than ever to issues pertaining to gender equality.
Developer Gearbox yesterday came in for criticism after it was revealed that the internal name for a Borderlands 2 mode that made the game easier was ‘Girlfriend Mode’. And it’s not the first time this year that Gearbox has taken flack from the female gaming lobby.
Let’s not let Capcom completely off the hook, however. Do you think this panning shot from the trailer (below) would have been used had the main character been a male?
Sony has a female lead of its own in the works, too, in the form of Beyond’s Jodie Holmes. Expect more of this game to be demonstrated at Sony’s Gamescom conference later today.
Here’s the debut Remember Me trailer:
