Earlier this week, developer Sucker Punch revealed during Sony's State of Play Ghost of Yotei, a sequel to 2020's critically acclaimed action-adventure game Ghost of Tsushima. The reveal was met with great enthusiasm by most, though it didn't take long for the vocal minority to express their anger with the game's main protagonist, a female named Atsu.
"Ghost of Tsushima sequel stars a Japanese woman samurai warrior because of course it does," complained streamer and YouTuber Endymion, a self-described "cynical man," shortly after the reveal. "They can't help themselves until every franchise that was built on masculinity is replaced by a woman... So sick of forced girlboss narrative man."
Although there were dozens of posts like this, former Sony executive Shawn Layden took particular note of this one and responded.
"1, it's a game," said the former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, who also served as president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America. "An entertainment. A story a team of creators believes in. They want to make this."
Layden then offered some blunt advice to anyone upset with the game's direction. "It's a game. If you don't like it, don't buy it. In fact, why not make the game you want yourself?"
Obviously, gamers and consumers vote with their wallets, so Layden isn't necessarily wrong or out of line with his advice. But it's probably also not something Sony wants to see, especially given the current financial struggles within the gaming industry. We already saw Concord, another game accused of being too "woke" and caving to DEI pressure, lose hundreds of millions.
And Ubisoft recently admitted to "softer than expected" sales for Star Wars Outlaws, another blockbuster game that featured a lead female protagonist, which was met with anger by what would seem to be a vocal minority. Of course, Star Wars Outlaws also suffered from numerous launch issues which may have also impacted sales.
Ghost of Yotei is set in 1603, more than 300 years after the events of Ghost of Tsushima. In a post on the PlayStation Blog following the game's reveal, Sucker Punch explained their reasoning for introducing a new character:
We also wanted to continue to innovate. To create something fresh but familiar, we looked beyond Jin Sakai’s story and the island of Tsushima, and shifted our focus to the idea of the Ghost instead. At Sucker Punch we love origin stories, and we wanted to explore what it could mean to have a new hero wearing a Ghost mask, and uncovering a new legend. This led us to Ghost of Yōtei: a new protagonist, a new story to unfold, and a new region of Japan to explore.
I'm a firm believer that most gamers don't really care if they play as a male or female, as long as the character is interesting and the story is compelling. Hopefully, it really is just a vocal minority upset with the decision to feature a new protagonist.