Female character was the ‘best fit’ for Remember Me

Capcom admits it was initially unsure about using a female as the lead character in Remember Me.

The firm’s head of marketing for the US and Europe Michael Pattison told MCV that there was the question as to whether a female lead character could potentially damage sales of the game. But the firm decided to back Dontnod’s vision for the action adventure title as the protagonist Nilin is the ‘best fit’ for the sort of game they were trying to make.

And as a result Capcom feels the game could now obtain an even wider audience of potential fans.

We do think it is a wide appeal title that will bring in males as well as females,” Pattison said.

I have to admit, when we first looked at this title, it was one of the first questions that everyone raised: ‘It is a female protagonist does that potentially damage the sales?’

Well obviously the counter point to that is that there is Tomb Raider. For every failure there is a success and for every success there is a failure. And you can do all the market research you want and break up the chart into male and female. But for us it was about trying to do something different. And because it is a particularly emotive topic, that thing of talking about memories and digitising memories. We actually felt that the female, who will have a little bit more sensitivity should I say, is actually a better fit for this type of game rather than an all-out action male hero.”

Remember Me is a new IP unveiled at Gamescom by Capcom this week. It is an action adventure title that focuses on memories as a key gameplay mechanic, and mixes hand-to-hand combat with Uncharted-style platforming.

It launches on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in May next year.