Call of Duty Dev Will Continue to Include Strong Women in Its Games

There are women fighting and dying around the world to keep people safe, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games wants to make sure that fact is represented in the games it makes. Co-founder Michael Condrey says in a new interview that Advanced Warfare's inclusion of a woman, tier one operator Ilona, in a key role, was not a one-off.

"We've tried to do a lot at the studio to present strong women in our games," he told GI.biz. "You've seen it today, that the role of women in the military is important so we tried to represent that in Advanced Warfare as a way to show that we believe there are women gamers who want to play, there are women gamers who want to develop games, there are women gamers in the military who are part of real combat around the globe, keeping us safe."

"So at Sledgehammer we want to do our part to honor and respect and show that [side of the military]; it's something we've tried to do and continue to do in Call of Duty," he added.

Advanced Warfare successor Black Ops III went even further, allowing players--for the first time ever in a Call of Duty game--to play through the game as a woman. Female playable characters came to Call of Duty in a big way with 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. That was the first game in the series that let gamers play as a woman, though you could only do so in multiplayer mode.

The next Call of Duty game was announced earlier this month and is coming this year from Modern Warfare creative Infinity Ward. It's described as "innovative," but no other details are available.

The full GI.biz interview is a good read that touches on the wider discussion around diversity in games.

Speaking at the 2016 DICE Summit last week, ESA CEO Michael Gallagher said the fact that only 22 percent of game developers today are women is "not good enough."