You can't play as a female assassin in 'Assassin's Creed,' but you can in 'Sunset Overdrive'

Ubisoft got a lot of flack last week after it made excuses for cutting the ability to play as a female character in its next Assassin's Creed game, and now the developer Insomniac is taking a shot at it too. In a video about its upcoming game Sunset Overdrive — one of the most exciting Xbox One titles showcased at E3 last week — Insomniac answers a question about whether the game allows people to play as female characters with a big, "Of course." And, it shows off a female character in a white cloak that looks more than a little like the Assassin's Creed outfit.

"Just be who you want to be."

"I mean, self expression is super important to us," Insomniac's Brandon Winfrey says. "You can be female. You can be male. You can be different skin tones. You can be different body types. And all of the clothing is gender neutral." Winfrey says that all outfits in the game can be worn by any character model, so, "If you want to be a dude in a skirt, you can be a dude in a skirt," Winfrey says. "Just be who you want to be."

Clearly, Insomniac is dismissive of Ubisoft's overall mindset that a female character is even something that could be cut from a game. It may not mention Ubisoft by name, but there's little doubt that the question it received and the unwavering language in its answer aren't both thinking about the incident — if not the problem throughout the gaming industry at large.

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