Ubisoft announced Far Cry 4 with an official cover art featuring the villain, Pagan Min and it didn’t receive well, gamers accused the publisher of racism and more.
After taking on twitter to clarify that Pagan is not white, and the captive man is not the main-character. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, creative director Alex Hutchinson goes in detail to explain the controversy surrounding Far Cry 4 box art.
Hutchinson clarified that the development team assets are different from the marketing team assets, although the former has at least some degree of input on the latter.
“We want something that’s arresting and something that’s striking… Our big goal is to get it into someone’s hands and for them to ask ‘what is this?’ and turn it over.
I think it was good that it got a big spike in talk. So that was nice, because it means at least people care enough to talk about you, which is way better than no one caring that you announced your game.”
“It’s funny when there’s one picture out there and there are so many articles jumping to conclusions.
It would have been interesting for someone to ring us up. That would have been cool. For someone to say, ‘Hello. We think this. What’s actually happening?’
That’s why I jumped on Twitter and was like, ‘He’s not white. That’s not the player. It’s more complex than that.’ So it’s been fun to see now that the video is out and more gameplay is out people are like, ‘Oh, okay. No big deal then.'”
He adds, “I was surprised by how quick people were to go that direction. I think it’s actually cool at the moment that inclusivity and breadth of character and everything are an issue in games, as I do think that’s something we need to do a better job of.
We need to go that way. But I think Ubisoft as a company has a pretty good history of doing unusual characters. The last game I directed, Assassin’s Creed 3, had a Native American lead character voiced by a Native American actor.
At the same time we had Aveline [in Assassin’s Creed: Liberation] who was a Creole character. And in the past we’ve had Italian characters and now there’s a French guy. We actually have a pretty diverse list overall.”
He notes that “There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people in the game with about 30 or 40 speaking characters, but everyone you fight for or against is not a white character.”
On Pagan Min, Hutchinson said, “We’re being accused of being stereotypical, but the assumption is stereotypical.
This character is meant to be a melange of different things. He’s mixed race. The way he dresses is unique to him. It’s part of the character. It’s not a comment on gender or race at all.
As much as people want diversity, the weird crossovers are uncomfortable. People were like, ‘Well he can’t be Asian because he has blond hair.’ It’s like, ‘Have you ever been to Korea?'”
Far Cry 4 will release on November 18 in North America and November 20, 2014 in Europe for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.
You can like our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us to your circle on Google+ to keep yourself updated on all the latest news around the web.
Source: Eurogamer