Yes, you read that right. The same studio that claimed it would have been too much work to animate female playable characters in Assassin’s Creed Unity just hired a guy to enhance the authenticity of the way the game’s characters move. Feel free to take a pause here, blink, rub your eyes, and make sure you’re not in some kind of bizarre alternate reality.
It’s not that I begrudge Michael ‘Frosti’ Zernow, of Tempest Freerunning, his new job as “chief parkour officer” (which, to be sure, is a pretty cool title to hold) at Ubisoft for the Assassin’s Creed series. I’m sure he’ll be great at it, and the assassins’ jumping, climbing, and acrobatics will probably look a lot more realistic. Good for him.
For the rest of us, it’s still a pretty big slap in the face as far as where the studio’s priorities lie.
According to Ubisoft’s release on the new hire, Zernow will have an ongoing role in the franchise to, “Serve in a strategic advisory role, ensuring an ongoing commitment to the authenticity and accuracy of parkour beginning with the October 28 launch of Assassin’s Creed Unity.”
That’s great and all, but we wouldn’t mind an ongoing commitment to the authenticity of gender representation to go along with it, Ubisoft. Who do we have to hire to get that done? (Psst: probably more women.)
(via Elder-Geek)
- Here’s where they said including women would’ve been too difficult
- And where they get called out by another Assassin’s Creed animator
- Sunset Overdrive is kind of mocking them over it now, too
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