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Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey says that future games in the Call of Duty series will have more strong female characters than previous entries.
In recent years, AAA video game developers have been making an effort to be more inclusive in gaming. One may be surprised to find out that one of the industry’s most male-oriented franchises, Call of Duty , has somewhat been leading the charge on that front. And according to Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey, this will continue in future installments.
The Sledgehammer-developedgame, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare , has been credited for being the first game in the series with a truly strong female character in the form of Ilona. According to Condrey, fans of the Call of Duty franchise should be able to look forward to more strong female characters in the Sledgehammer Games-developed entries in the series moves forward.
While the series in general is still somewhat lacking in terms of female characters, the last few installments in the Call of Duty series have already made efforts to be more diverse. For example, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts was the first to allow female multiplayer characters. Furthermore, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 has Sarah Hall, a female character that plays a major role in that particular game’s campaign.
Black Ops 3 also has a number of female specialists that players can choose to control in the game’s online multiplayer arenas. So even though one could argue that there is still work to be done in terms of making the cast of Call of Duty games more diverse, the developers behind the series seem to be making good progress in that regard, especially compared to other big budget releases.
Besides including more female characters for diversity’s sake, it makes sense for the Call of Duty series, especially installments set in modern or futuristic settings, to have more female characters. After all, we are already seeing women take on more combat roles in the military in real life, and their presence in that sector will only continue to grow. Despite Call of Duty ‘s over-the-top set-pieces and sci-fi technology, the games do attempt to be believable to some degree, and excluding women would be counter-intuitive to that goal.
Of course, Condrey can only speak to the efforts that Sledgehammer Games is making to include more strong female characters in the Call of Duty franchise. Fans shouldn’t have to worry about Treyarch or Infinity Ward slacking off in that department, however. As stated previously, Black Ops 3 and Ghosts both feature numerous playable female characters, so there’s no reason to think that any future games like Call of Duty 2016– especially with the director having joined Infinity Ward– will be any different.
The next Call of Duty game is expected to release in November of this year for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: GameSpot