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Shanw Layden (Former PlayStation CEO) on Ghost of Yotei protagonist being a female: "Don't like it? Don't buy it"

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
Since when is having a female protagonist a bad thing? I prefer to look at an attractive female character than a man. That's a plus in my book.

What I would hate to see is the inclusion of woke BS in the game.

For my entire life and probably decades preceding it female protags were featured prominently in media. Comics, TV, film, literature, whatever. It has only been since around 2014 dudes online started complaining about it.

There will probably be books written years from now covering this bizarre phenomenon.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
For my entire life and probably decades preceding it female protags were featured prominently in media. Comics, TV, film, literature, whatever. It has only been since around 2014 dudes online started complaining about it.

There will probably be books written years from now covering this bizarre phenomenon.
The phenomenon was ideological gaslighting, gender swaps, and poorly written characters and plots the past 10+ years.

We all love Ripley, Lara Croft, OG Leia, etc., etc..
 
Will we ever see an exec say this when a new game with a white dude (although these seem to get somewhat rare) gets announced and people complain? 🤔
 

Bombolone

Gold Member
The phenomenon was ideological gaslighting, gender swaps, and poorly written characters and plots the past 10+ years.

We all love Ripley, Lara Croft, OG Leia, etc., etc..
More power to you for replying to them.
I am seeing more and more of this brain dead take that willfully ignores context. (How convenient)
Taking these comments as genuine displays of ignorance, I simply say there is more nuance to it, then move on. If I even engage.
If they are genuine, they will do the quick and easy research. The ones that want you to drag them along starting with the ABCs are easy to spot.
 
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Thabass

Member
Ah so, you'd like for people to do what they did for Concord. I am not sure you're all there right now, Sony.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
"If you don't like it, why don't you just make a game of your own" this is such a monumentally retarded take in regard to criticism.

You can handwave literally anything anyone says about anything with dumb shit like that.

"Oh you thought Rings of Power was bad? Why don't you make your own Tolkien tv show then huh?"
"Oh you don't like the iPhone 16? Why don't you make your own phone then? Checkmate loser"
 
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Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
Sucker Punch are probably wishing Shawn had just shut the fuck up.

Other than the unholy eldritch actress that they cast as the lead, it's too early to tell whether the game has a political agenda etc. The trailer seemed to hit all the right notes for me so far.

However this probably won't be a day 1 purchase for me like GoT was, and I'll wait for user impressions here and elsewhere before deciding.
 

finalflame

Banned
More power to you for replying to them.
I am seeing more and more of this brain dead take that willfully ignores context. (How convenient)
Taking these comments as genuine displays of ignorance, I simply say there is more nuance to it, then move on. If I even engage.
If they are genuine, they will do the quick and easy research. The ones that want you to drag them along starting with the ABCs are easy to spot.
What Are You Doing Reaction GIF
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Didn't hear any complain about being a girl

...that said, hearing cry (even from a former employee) doesn't help, and Concord is an example that they need to be cautious with what they're offering
 

Ozriel

M$FT
People can say what they want and customers can buy what they want.

I always find it amazing how brash video game employees are against gamers on social media. It's pretty hard to find execs or employees in other industries smack talking back when customers dont like something.

A truly combative bunch.

Nobody needs to coddle weird people that are outraged over a female protagonist.

If trolls are hating the game for whatever reason, the only positive answer is silence. By acting cocky he's putting hundreds of jobs on the line and smearing Sucker Punch's work. He's a selfish asshole.

Lmao, this isn’t a new IP. It’s the successor to a very well received game…and it’s going to sell gangbusters when it releases. We all know the vast majority of the folks he’s referring to will still end up buying the game

Nothing is being put on the line with this game.

Of course, this won’t apply to many other games or franchises
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
He should list what platform this is coming from. Otherwise it sounds like he’s echoing the voice of the people complaining. I don’t recall having a negative thought when I saw the trailer.

Oh yeah a comment on X.
 
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Honest question: is Draugoth Draugoth a bot? It constantly posts the most caustic of topics for seemingly no reason other than to stir up shit. Like, why do we care what an ex-executive of Sony says about the culture war around a game that isn't even released?

It even does the classic ragebait of having a typo in the subject line.
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
This is a general thing in entitled narcissistic Western devs and execs, far from an exceptional case.

The contrast to Asian devs is again day and night. You can troll, mock or insult those and they won't react like little bitches because, at the end of the day, they are working for an audience, no matter if some individuals are obnoxious.

If trolls are hating the game for whatever reason, the only positive answer is silence. By acting cocky he's putting hundreds of jobs on the line and smearing Sucker Punch's work. He's a selfish asshole.

I do agree with this. Social media is ruining people. He could have just shut up! I agree with him. But he shouldn't have said it publicly.
 

Fake

Member
Make me wonder what would happen if they change Aloy to some male character in the sequel, if fans of Aloy would be OK with that decision.
 

UnrealEck

Member
I don't have any complaint about a female protagonist. It's the people involved in the game including the actress that leads me to believe the game is compromised by race and gender marxism.
 

Boss Man

Member
Figure heads will never understand us gamers. Sure, there are plenty of idiots that say dumb shit like "a female protagonist? That's woke!" but most of us have no problem playing as a female lead in a game. We just hate forced, agenda-driven activism that is totally out of place. Big difference.

I see nothing wrong with Ghost of Yotei having a female samurai.

You think they just randomly decided to change the ancient samurai warrior into a lady and that wasn’t agenda-driven?
 

Haint

Member
Wait. There's a controversy regarding the game protagonist being a woman? I don't see any problem with that. As a matter of fact, since the days of Samus, Lara Croft and even Lightning from FFXIII, I'm a big supporter of female protagonist in games and in stories overall.

Do not confuse this with being a supporter of 'forced inclusivity'. That and having a good female protagonist are two very different topics altogether.

10 years ago there'd be nothing thought of it, but in a world of double mastectomy scars in character creators, rainbow haired "modern audience" developers being featured in every vidoc, and uglified shebosses comprising like 90% of new game characters, yeah, it's absolutely controversial. You of course already know this, but decided to post your disingenuous comment anyways. It's no secret that Sony executives and their studios are the wokest mother fuckers on the face of the earth. Black Lives Matters Man 3 and The Last of Scissoring 3 are going to make Concord look far right by comparison.
 
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You think they just randomly decided to change the ancient samurai warrior into a lady and that wasn’t agenda-driven?
Show me some proof and we'll discuss it. Otherwise, it's just a fictional story bruh. I could be wrong, but isn't she just another character entirely? Why are people thinking Jin has been changed into a woman?
 
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Synless

Member
Zero issues with the MC. The actress they used for her though I can’t say I like. However, I don’t give a fuck about the actress in terms of my purchase.
 

Fake

Member
Why would any normal person expect Aloy to still be alive in another Horizon game, in another location set hundreds of years in the future from the previous game?

Better question, why are people using the 'moving time foward' as something that happens in a sequel?

SP deliberately move foward the years of the franchise just to make sure Jin got replaced.

Quite simple. People wouldn't like if they replace Aloy. No matter the sexual orientation of the next character, people got attached with those characters.

I don't like Aloy, but doesn't mean someone does.

This character isn't Jin, it's set 300+ years ahead of Tsushima.

Sigh... I know this is gonna be a hell of shield for any argument between replacing Jin from his franchise.
 
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midnightAI

Banned
He should list what platform this is coming from. Otherwise it sounds like he’s echoing the voice of the people complaining. I don’t recall having a negative thought when I saw the trailer.

Oh yeah a comment on X.
Look no further than this very site, the trailer announcement thread is a shit show and the other thread (about her practicing Kenjutsu which is now locked) was even worse. YouTube also is full of it, not to mention X etc.
 

FunkMiller

Member
Dumb thing to say really. He should be as keen as anyone to make sure the characters in games are well written and compelling.

A blanket generalisation like this one helps nobody.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
Dumb for him to have said it, but I can't argue with him.

I'm not bothered by anything I've seen so far. In fact the opposite. GoY looks great.
 
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Fake

Member
Because he's not from Kyoto.

And? If they can move a franchise 300 years, they sure can make Jin appears there.

Its just a matter of if this new game gonna be a sucess or not.


You guys should stop acting like 'everything is impossible'. Those who write the story make the rules. If this game flops I quite sure they gonna end up back to the roots.
 
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yurinka

Member
I agree with him. People should buy with the wallet. Companies depend on that money.

So at some point they'll connect the lines of failures like Destruction AllStars, Forspoken or Concord, or will see that can't afford more like them, and will get rid of the DEI (which should be renamed to Censorship, Discrimination and Propaganda) team and focus again on what their customers like.

Ghost of Kyoto probably won't have Jin as a protagonist either.
It depends.

If it tanks in sales compared to the first one, maybe someone at Sony realizes that removing their iconic characters because of their gender, skin color etc. just to push propaganda maybe wasn't a good idea, and may bring him back calling the next game Ghost of Tsushima 2 putting Jin as main character.
 
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Fake

Member
But... He's the Ghost of Tsushima. This character is from, just a guess here, Hokkaido.

Jin is the ghost dude, doesn't matter the place. He will always be the ghost. Its just because they release this new 'sequel' and now 'everyone can be a ghost' become a thing.
 

Mr Moose

Member
Jin is the ghost dude, doesn't matter the place. He will always be the ghost. Its just because they release this new 'sequel' and now 'everyone can be a ghost' become a thing.
Yes it does, that's the whole point in Ghost of Tsushima. That's where he's from. He can't just become a "Ghost of" somewhere else. It would need to be a different protagonist each time they change areas.
It depends.

If it tanks in sales compared to the first one, maybe someone at Sony realizes that removing their iconic characters because of their gender, skin color etc. just to push propaganda maybe wasn't a good idea, and may bring him back calling the next game Ghost of Tsushima 2 putting Jin as main character.
Exactly, he's the Ghost of Tsushima. Not Yōtei or Kyoto.
 
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HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
Jin is the ghost dude, doesn't matter the place. He will always be the ghost. Its just because they release this new 'sequel' and now 'everyone can be a ghost' become a thing.
I'm starting to wonder if you actually played the first game. On top of that, you haven't played the second game, but already know everything that's going to happen.
 
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Ozriel

M$FT
Better question, why are people using the 'moving time foward' as something that happens in a sequel?

SP deliberately move foward the years of the franchise just to make sure Jin got replaced.

Quite simple. People wouldn't like if they replace Aloy. No matter the sexual orientation of the next character, people got attached with those characters.

I don't like Aloy, but doesn't mean someone does.



Sigh... I know this is gonna be a hell of shield for any argument between replacing Jin from his franchise.


Eh. People managed to survive playing different characters in the different Assassins Creed games. No real uproar there.

It’s the ‘woman’ thing that’s the issue here.
 

Fake

Member
Yes it does, that's the whole point in Ghost of Tsushima. That's where he's from. He can't just become a "Ghost of" somewhere else. It would need to be a different protagonist each time they change areas.

Doesn't matter dude. He can be at other place and still be called the Ghost of Tsushima lmao.

Are you guys not familiar about how reputation works? Or acting like 'Oh you know what, he can't move from place to place. He will still imprison to Tsushima for the rest of his life. But hey, sure we can move the years 300 foward'.

Eh. People managed to survive playing different characters in the different Assassins Creed games. No real uproar there.

It’s the ‘woman’ thing that’s the issue here.

Thats the problem. Since day one people called GoT as a Assassins Creed clone, but as Sony give much more attention to character personality, people forget this similarities.

As soon as Sony start to change the main character from every sequel from now they just gonna reforce that GoT was indeed a Assassins Creed cheap clone.

edit: I see you are using the woman argument again. Keep that in mind if you want to have a civil conversation. I would be mad if was a man replacing Jin. My problem is replacing Jin. I don't give a shit about the sexual orientation, besides that stupid actress making activism over Twitter.
 
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midnightAI

Banned
You think they just randomly decided to change the ancient samurai warrior into a lady and that wasn’t agenda-driven?
Randomly? No
Agenda driven? Also no.

They want to tell interesting stories about ancient Japan that many people won't have heard about.

The first game was about a Mongol invasion of Tsushima, I doubt many (if any) knew that happened. The lead character is a male Samurai who uses methods not used by the Shogun as they are seen to be without honour and so will be hunted by them until he dies (presumably you know this if you played the first game)

They are now going to the north, Ezo, which at the time was outside the rule of Japan. You play as a female Japanese warrior which (as you can see from many posts here) not many people even knew existed. So it looks to me as though they just want to tell a story in that region, again, one most likely routed in history with poetic license of course (it's also very pretty there with wide open plains, mountains and the like)
 

Mr Moose

Member
Doesn't matter dude. He can be at other place and still be called the Ghost of Tsushima lmao.

Are you guys not familiar about how reputation works? Or acting like 'Oh you know what, he can't move from place to place. He will still imprison to Tsushima for the rest of his life. But hey, sure we can move the years 300 foward'.



Thats the problem. Since day one people called GoT as a Assassins Creed clone, but as Sony give much more attention to character personality, people forget this similarities.

As soon as Sony start to change the main character from every sequel from now they just gonna reforce that GoT was indeed a Assassins Creed cheap clone.
Yeah, but he wouldn't be the "Ghost of" of a different place (in this case Yōtei).
 

Ozriel

M$FT
I agree with him. People should buy with the wallet. Companies depend on that money.

So at some point they'll connect the lines of failures like Destruction AllStars, Forspoken or Concord, or will see that can't afford more like them, and will get rid of the DEI (which should be renamed to Censorship, Discrimination and Propaganda) team and focus again on what their customers like

Well, going by how most of the reaction to the trailer was of excitement, I believe they’re delivering what the bulk of their customers like.

It depends.

If it tanks in sales compared to the first one, maybe someone at Sony realizes that removing their iconic characters because of their gender, skin color etc. just to push propaganda maybe wasn't a good idea, and may bring him back calling the next game Ghost of Tsushima 2 putting Jin as main character.

I wouldn’t go as far as labeling Jin a PlayStation Icon, and certainly this is unlikely to tank in sales.

Doesn't matter dude. He can be at other place and still be called the Ghost of Tsushima lmao.

Are you guys not familiar about how reputation works? Or acting like 'Oh you know what, he can't move from place to place. He will still imprison to Tsushima for the rest of his life. But hey, sure we can move the years 300 foward'.

Devs aren’t allowed to make their own stories anymore, it seems.


Thats the problem. Since day one people called GoT as a Assassins Creed clone, but as Sony give much more attention to character personality, people forget this similarities.

As soon as Sony start to change the main character from every sequel from now they just gonna reforce that GoT was indeed a Assassins Creed cheap clone.

Ghost of Tsushima was VERY well received by players.
The folks who played and enjoyed it never thought of it as an Assassins Creed clone.

I’m not sure Sony first party studios should design games with the thought process of “What would Grummz think?”
 
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