Actually, they do! But a new report by the research firm Interpret finds that, despite having grown to representing 50% of the market, the video games being created continue to ignore women.
As M. H. Williams reports for Industry Gamers, “21 percent [of female gamers] use Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and 16 percent play on the PlayStation 3, up from 17 and 12 percent respectively in 2009. 44 percent of female players prefer genres other than casual, music, and exercise games, despite the stereotype.”
Coutney Johnson, who works for Interpret, notes that female gamers are:
"…much more likely to prefer to play solo than men, and play games for less competitive and more narrative- and character-driven reasons. It remains to be seen whether developers and marketers will effectively invest in understanding and exploiting the undertapped female gaming market."
Enter Mass Effect 3. Director of Marketing for the title, David Silverman announced the other day that not only will the third installment in the franchise sport a trailer featuring the female Shepard, but will also showcase her side by side with her male counterpart on the Collector’s Edition of the game’s box.
This is an important step forward. But will it change much? Mass Effect 3 is still an action ridden, now including turret set pieces and all, sci-fi epic (a genre that has traditionally appealed more to men than women). I don't want to insult any of the female gamers out there. Plenty of them love sci-fi action and many of them enjoy a shooter as much as the next guy. But I'm sure a lot of them have already picked up the ME franchise and become ardent fans. In that way, perhaps this is just BioWare paying its long overdue respects to the female fans out there. Whether this will be the first in many attempts to woo potential girl gamers remains to be seen.
So kudos to BioWare for its making moves to broaden the appeal of a great series. Though I have to ask, am I the only one who thinks that continuing to call her “FemShep” is a bit ironic?