The former creative director of the "Assassin's Creed" franchise claims adding female co-op mode characters being "more work" for the developers isn't an excuse for Ubisoft not to put in the effort.
Patrice Désilets, the creative director for the first "Assassin's Creed," explained to Polygon why Ubisoft missed an opportunity to make a strong point in their franchise.
"It's true. If you do a big giant character and a small character, or a woman and a guy, it's different," Désilets told Polygon. "But that shouldn't stop you. With all the time, money and people on that project, you [Ubisoft] could've done it."
Désilets added seeing four women assassins in the co-op mode at E3 "would have been really a strong message of what Assassin's Creed Unity is about." Désilets is currently pursuing legal actions against Ubisoft claiming he was wrongfully terminated.
Another former employee shared his opinion on Ubisoft Creative Director Alex Amancio's comments regarding female animations would have been double the work for the studio. Former "Assassin's Creed" Animation Designer Jonathan Cooper let his Twitter followers know his best guess as to how much work the animations really would have taken.
"In my educated opinion, I would estimate this to be a day or two's work. Not a replacement of 8000 animations," Cooper said on Twitter. "Man, if I had a dollar for every time someone at Ubisoft tried to bullsh** me on animation tech," he added in a later post.
Ubisoft released the following statement shortly after Amancio's comments cause an outrage amongst "Assassin's Creed" fans:
We recognize the valid concern around diversity in video game narrative. Assassin's Creed is developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs and we hope this attention to diversity is reflected in the settings of our games and our characters.
Assassin's Creed Unity is focused on the story of the lead character, Arno. Whether playing by yourself or with the co-op Shared Experiences, you the gamer will always be playing as Arno, complete with his broad range of gear and skill sets that will make you feel unique.
With regard to diversity in our playable Assassins, we've featured Aveline, Connor, Adewale and Altair in Assassin's Creed games and we continue to look at showcasing diverse characters. We look forward to introducing you to some of the strong female characters in Assassin's Creed Unity.
"Assassin's Creed: Unity" will be released to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on Oct. 28.
