Naughty Dog: games don't need males on cover to sell

I think the cover looks fine the way it is above.  Why can't the guy and the girl be on the cover together?

It's too bad that we live in a society where a cover that sells is more important than an artistic cover.

Is that Ellen Page doing the char and voice over?

If it's that big a deal for Sony then they should just go the Mass Effect 3 way and have reversible covers, one with Joel and one with Ellie, then the store can flip the covers and have half with Joel on and the other half with Ellie. But, to be honest, I'm going to buy a game (including this one) based on if it's good, not the sex of the character on the cover.

Garbage. What an insulting POS garbage thing to say.

I buy a game if it's good. Most gamers buy a game if it's good. The majority, "mainstream" audience want excitement, enjoyment, strong characters, strong story, great gameplay. If you make a great game with a woman on the cover, it will sell.

Don't just take the moral high ground and make out like this is an issue without yourself at least contributing to fix it. 

Hey here's an idea to balance out the loss of sales from putting a girl (ewww gross!) on the cover; stop making your games exclusive to one console, the rest of us might like to play them too.

The cover issue is, imho, a non-issue. It will not affect sales - in fact, using Mass Effect as example, I think it would sell BETTER without Shepard in the cover - specially 2 and 3, since "your" Shepard will probably not look like that guy.With Miranda and Zero on the cover it would be much better.Well, actually Garrus would be a nice choice too, etc... but you get my point. 

Anyone still remember Metroid?

I just play whenever a game looks good to me. Gender is no problem to me.

Did Laura Parker hack eddie makuch's account?

Are you listening BIOSHOCK INFINITE?????

WTF...did any of Lara Croft's box cover were in the back? Masterchief's the protagonist of Halo and no one even think about putting him on the back. It doesn't matter he/she is a male/female. If he/she is a protagonist, put em to front cover.

You tell 'em, Naughty Dog!! I'm tired of cliche box art.

I'd rather have more females tbh, I thought it was purely an American thing to have homoerotic muscle bound men showing off their pecks to make up for other things they may or may not have stuck on the front of boxes.

A lot of men nowadays play as female characters by choice in games anyway. Not really news here.

Depends on how much cover the woman/girl has.

...That is simultaneously one of the stupidest and most horrible things I've ever heard...  I haven't really been following the game myself, but it's a game about a man and his daughter trying to survive the post-apocalypse right?  The girl's kinda an important part of that equation, and removing her would just make the whole concept kinda boring and washed out.  In other words, she's an important part of the game...  What kind of idiot wouldn't want her on the cover just because of her gender?

Anyway, respect to everyone at Naughty Dog for calling out this stupidity.

I am guilty of buying games which give even the slightest hint that there might be boobs in there. Not bare boob...just boob in general.... I hate myself....-_-

I wasn't aware that it was generally frowned upon to have a female somewhere on a game cover. I guess if Tomb Raider hadn't had Lara Croft on the cover, the game might have actually done well and possibly spawned sequels, becoming a well-respected series. Oh, wait...

So why has it taken until the 4th game for them to say this?

I would also like to say the cover could like Beatles "White Album" and I would still buy this game on day one.

It seems everyday now I become more and more ashamed to be a gamer. The sterotype that we are petty, immature losers unable to relate to women or examine serious social issues is basically true if you judge by the comments on this website.

Oh look, another pointless article about sexism.

It's the content, not the cover, for me.

What the heck naughty dog WHAT THE HECK.... THE GAMERS DONT CARE FOR DUMB COVER ART WHO CARES IF YOU PUT A GIRL ON!

Huh. I wouldn't buy it either way.

Correct me if I'm wrong..... Tomb Raider?!

To the folks that dissing the mixing of video games and social issues

...you think people are blowing up little issues in what should just be an entertainment medium--a place to escape into fantasy from the real world.  You think it's all about being ridiculously PC.  I can agree that sometimes it gets a little heavy handed...

...however...

Films, books, comic books, art etc.--these mediums are all more or less made up of fictional works (ie. "...NOT REAL") yet they all deeply affect our worldview; they have for centuries.  The way in which love, race, cigarettes, men, heroism, sex, violence, femininity, beauty, God, homosexuality, etc. are all portrayed/represented have a powerful impact on the way WE, in turn, see the world and go about interacting with it.  

Can you really not imagine video games, which have bombarded us with consistent stereotypes and images since we were kids, having a similarly profound effect on our psyche? Can you really not expect 14-year-old-boys to be affected by constantly blowing up turban-clad Arabs, or seeing that every female character has massive tits, or having the same ripped alpha-male on every video-game cover? I know we're all relatively smart and that we're not swayed by every little thing we see, but we have to realize that on some level we are affected by these representations.  Others may be more so.

Video games are past Pong.  They are beginning to represent the real world--with more and more graphical realism, in fact--so I think we must react accordingly, by expecting the same mature, nuanced representations from our video games (when applicable, of course) that we do from our cinema and written fiction.

Romance novels do.

I think that cover art looks pretty cool.

In the '80s, action heroes were big muscular guys in their 20s who were basically stronger and faster than anybody that dared opposed them.  At some point in the movie / game / music video, there was probably going to be an excuse for them to be topless for a significant portion of time.  Think Stallone, Shwarzenegger, or Nukem.

Today's action hero tends to be a fit -- but not hulking -- middle-aged man.  He often looks grizzled and worn, but he's a veteran that has seen enough combat to know how to win.  He's a capable fighter, but he's going to win most of his battles by being smarter and more aware than his foes.  Think Sutherland, Craig, or (maybe) Drake.

Either way, it's rare to see a female in a "realistic," gritty action role.  Fantasy games or sci-fi, maybe, but never really anything grounded.  I'll even go further to say that most of the time, our protagonist is a white guy.  I'd love to see more games that featured females without DD-cup breasts, or a Japanese guy who isn't a ninja, or a black guy who isn't a boxer, but just regular guys and gals who overcome some tremendous odds.  I might connect with those characters a bit more than the ones I'm presented with now.

With all that said, I'm really glad that Ellie will be front-and-center on the box.  I can just imagine that she'll lend the story some emotional gravitas and become a character that we legitimately care about by the end of the game.

I would care less of the cover.  The only game cover i remembered of the top of my head is Dragon Age, it has a red dragon.   Tomb raider Laura croft too.  RE6 has a number 6, whoopie.

Pretty sure Lightning sold Final Fantasy 13 lol

Lol this is so stupid I bought final fantasy XIII and never gave a shit that lightning was on the cover. Id almost think the opposite when I see a woman on the cover...

It is not the cover hat sells me a game, it's the demos and story line and most important, a PROPER game.  where is this moronic marketing coming from, it's so frustrating !!!

In 2012 I really thought we had moved past this.

I plan on buying this game no matter what is on the cover.......personally I don't care. I have done my research and found out this game should be a AAA title and will be really surprised if it is not.....

LOL, then make dual cover that you can swap.

To all the folks suggesting that we forego the sexism debate:

This is a video game website...why not discuss issues relevant to video games? ...especially if they affect someone who's a part of our community (even if they aren't YOUR specific demographic).

As for the issue itself, imagine if a distributor were suggesting that a company replace a black guy with a white guy on their box art because they thought that white heroes sell better than non-whites--despite the fact that the black character may be crucial to the game itself.  

Should we then just "stop thinking about RACISM and simply consume whatever the industry feeds us"  or should we discuss these issues openly and see if we can't affect some change?  Come on peoples...there's a big world out there to interact with.