Rockstar says "of course" it could make game with female lead

A future Rockstar Games-developed title could feature a female in a lead playable role, according to cofounder Dan Houser. Speaking with The Guardian, Houser explained that featuring a female lead in Grand Theft Auto V "didn't feel natural," but made clear that the company is not against the idea of introducing a female protagonist for a new game.

"We didn't really think about it this time. That's not to say that we couldn't or we wouldn't," Houser said. "This character set is just what came to us: it wasn't, 'we've got X and Y so we need Z,' we weren't trying to do it off a checklist--I don't think that will ever give you something that's believable or engaging."

"In the future, could we do a game with a lead female character? Of course," he added. "We just haven't found the right game for it yet, but it's one of the things that we always think about. It didn't feel natural for this game but definitely for the right game in the future--with the right themes, it could be fantastic. But for GTA V, this was the organic thing that came up, these were the characters what [sic] would display the themes we wanted to think about."

Houser said previously that "the concept of being masculine was so key to this story," about GTAV's male-only protagonist roster.

GTAV's three playable protagonists are Trevor, Michael, and Franklin. The game's online component, GTA Online, will allow players to create a female character. This game mode will launch on October 1 as a free update to the game.

GTAV launched yesterday for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It generated $800 million in 24 hours, making its launch-day sales the strongest in Take-Two history and for the GTA series overall. For more on GTAV, check out GameSpot's review.