Aliens: Colonial Marines female absence petition hits 1,800 signatures

Last month, a live webchat with Aliens: Colonial Marines producer Brian Burleson revealed that female characters would not be playable in the multiplayer portion of the game. While they will be playable in the single-player campaign, the character customisation for multiplayer gameplay does not allow players to opt for a female character.

Ever since, the game has come under fire for what fans call an under-representation of female characters. iPetitions user Melissa K, username MOOSH89, started a petition at the beginning of June for females to be included in multiplayer. Her initial goal of 1,000 has been surpassed by nearly double, coming in at 1,873 at the time of writing. While the petition page insists that she is not "outraged," she states on the petitions page, "The Aliens franchise is dominated by strong females such as Ripley, Vasquez, Ferro, Dietrich, and most importantly, The Queen."

Developer Gearbox and Publisher Sega have yet to respond to the petition.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is set for release on February 12, 2013, on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. A Wii U release--to be the best-looking version--is also planned, but no release date has been announced.