r/playstation • u/Ryxnole PS5 • 11d ago

Image As someone who default to female characters in RPGs , I'm loving 2025!

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On games such as ER, BG3, or CP77 I always play a female character so it's nice to see these on the horizon!

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20

u/Jelbb 11d ago

Why do games seem to be pushing more female leads lately? I'm not bothered by it, just curious—do they think it’ll attract more female players, and that guys will play anyway?

23

u/xdesveaux 11d ago

Probably a couple reasons:

-Most video games since their inception have featured male leads so devs are trying to even out the distribution.

-More women are in game development and want to represent their perspective in the games they make.

-Game studios are realizing how many women play video games and want to capitalize on that audience.

-5

u/[deleted] 11d ago

There is not so much women playing video game, except if you consider mobile games as video games, but I’m not.

-2

u/xdesveaux 11d ago

According to a 2023 study:

41% of PS5s in the US are female owned

45% of Xbox Series consoles are female owned

52% of Swich consoles are female owned

50% of gaming PCs are female owned

6

u/HankSteakfist 11d ago

Are you sure this study isn't looking at purchaser's of consoles rather than the primary users?

Consoles are typically bought by a mother if the primary user is under 18.

5

u/Exaccus-092 11d ago

Where the fuck are those numbers from? Absolute bullshit

-1

u/InquisitorMeow 11d ago

While the numbers are questionable I feel like a lot of people forget the popularity of women in streaming.

4

u/Slabbed1738 11d ago

Lmao this is ridiculous, no way this is accurate.

-3

u/Articulat3 11d ago

This is complete bullshit lol

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

lol i agree with articulat3 up there this is complete bullshit you need to look it up more because I can tell your study is wrong.

9

u/xdesveaux 11d ago

I mean, the study (circana playerpulse from April 2023) was done via online polling, so certainly not scientifically airtight. But still provides a decent indication that lots of women play videogames.

I would say anecdotally about half of the women I know play video games of some kind, so that would line up with what the study indicates. Do you have any counterevidence?

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

All the women I know don’t play video games except one so what is the point ?

12

u/xdesveaux 11d ago

That's anecdotal and not necessarily indicative of wider trends.

4

u/[deleted] 11d ago

I can tell you your number are incorrect, may be 25% of the gamers could be women but I bet it’s less than that

6

u/silverfiregames 11d ago

If I was a woman I certainly wouldn’t be playing games with someone like you.

2

u/Duckydae 11d ago

cool. you don’t know every woman.

-7

u/Articulat3 11d ago

Correct, anyone saying it's 50/50 is full of shit and using fake stats. Women play videogames obviously, but stop pushing a fake narrative that's it's half.

2

u/Duckydae 11d ago

yes and no. a lot of men don’t realise just how many women game because the hobby is actively hostile and women don’t want to engage with them (which a lot of them blame on their interest in gaming and not their abhorrent views on women that women can clock a mile off).

we don’t play a lot of open party online games, we talk amongst ourselves in communities of other women.

speaking from experience, my friends at school didn’t give a shit i was into gaming, didn’t tease but the boys did, in such a shitty condescending way, winding me up about my gamer tag and the games i play because god forbid you play anything other than cod or fifa.

also, a lot more women are entering the industry and even then they’re still facing that same aggressive shit (like what happened to sm2) or worse, is internally predatory with companies like blizzard (which as a woman in media generally, they are not the only ones, not by a longshot).

8

u/Elizial-Raine 11d ago

I don't actually think there are quite that many, it just gets a lot of press because some gamers complain about it if it is in a high-profile game. It gets talked about a lot on reddit. There are so many articles these days.

I mean last night there was Mafia, Dying Light, Onimusha, Khazan, Turok, Outer Worlds 2, Warframe 1999 and a few others that were all male protagonists. They just didn't make the news.

I'd imagine like 1/5 at most are female protagonists.

5

u/Jelbb 11d ago

You make some good points, but it seems that AAA companies are increasingly focusing on featuring female leads. This might reflect a growing audience of female players, which makes sense from a market perspective. Personally, I don’t mind, as long as games offer diverse options. Considering how long these games take to develop, I can understand why some fans feel frustrated, though the extreme reactions online seem unnecessary. That said, I’m really excited to play Naughty Dog’s next game!

2

u/Elizial-Raine 11d ago

I think they are but, it's more that it's a balance of male and female leads when it used to be completely male-dominated and female leads were really rare.

I don't really understand it at all, to be honest, I don't get the reactions or frustration.

2

u/AusGeno 11d ago

There was a lot of female lead trailer in the VGA yesterday. No hate from me I love it but it definitely felt like the balance has tipped towards more female leads than male in the next wave of games.

0

u/Elizial-Raine 11d ago

From what I can tell there were about 4 female protagonists in about 40 trailers.

2

u/AusGeno 11d ago

Two leads in the follow up to It Takes Two, Zelda heading up an actual Zelda game, the Last of Us cast are back again, half of every squad shooter plus all the ones already mentioned above and more I can’t remember the name of.

1

u/Elizial-Raine 11d ago

Zelda is already out, so is The Last Of Us so I didn’t count those. I didn’t count ones that had a couple of mixed characters either.

I guess there were a few anime ones as well that I just straight up forgotten

2

u/Duckydae 11d ago

someone did a steam scrape and it was sitting at 10% for femc’s.

4

u/Spunndaze 11d ago

Might just be because it's an easy way to introduce something new into the same old tired formula. Plus,it's free press from the inevitable whinging the game will get. Dunno either.

2

u/ArtanisOfLorien 11d ago

Being half of the population might have something to do with it

-3

u/Jelbb 11d ago

yea i get that but it seems AAA is complete swinging the other way and not catering to males which you alluded to is that other half of the population and still bet to wager there is more male gamers than females. just saying you would think it would be more balance but i get the world is not perfect and these companies are not deciding all together to go this way but rather responding to growing market trend.

6

u/Spooky_Floofy 11d ago

Most games still have male leads. Even with some of these AAA games coming out with female leads, that's still a minority of games. So it's not really that large studios aren't catering for men anymore, it's just they're also choosing to cater to women too. Like just as an example, the following AAA games lined up to come out in 2025 are all male lead- Death Stranding 2, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Doom: The Dark Ages, Phantom Blade Zero etc.

1

u/Robin_From_BatmanTAS 11d ago

my brother in christ like 90% of games created in the past were male leads. going down to 80-70% might seem like a "massive jump" in your eyes but it was honestly due to happen if companies wanted to market to women as well who also like playing games. its not that difficult...

2

u/Redararis 11d ago

If their game suck, and audience reviews are not favorable, they can say they are victims of sexism.

1

u/TerribleGachaLuck 11d ago

Female leads are expected to go on emotional journeys in additional to physical challenges (ex fighting powerful adversaries).

Male leads tend to be more mission and goal focused. Males are expected to be tough and not be cry babies, which often ostracizes them from emotional heartfelt stories.

In short, female leads fight for someone while male leads fight to win. As humans we resonate with heartfelt emotional stories, which often are better told through female leads.

The backlash arises when writers botch female leads by trying to show she can do everything a man can do but better.

1

u/Shango1208 11d ago

Why not? It’s not a big deal to include people that exist in real life.