Creating one of the most anticipated games is tough enough, but now gamers are calling for a playable female character in Assassin’s Creed Unity. But developer Ubisoft has poured cold water on the notion, saying it’s twice the development work.

(Ubisoft has done it before – Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation for PlayStation Vita featured a female protagonist named Aveline… but no option to play as man.)

“It’s double the animations, it’s double the voices and all that stuff, and double the visual assets. It would have doubled the work on those things. And I mean it’s something the team really wanted, but we had to make a decision… It’s unfortunate, but it’s a reality of game development” said Alex Amancio, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal in an interview with Polygon.

According to Amancio, you will always play as main character Arno, and people who join your game will spawn as customisable male assassins.

“Because of that, the common denominator was Arno. It’s not like we could cut our main character, so the only logical option, the only option we had, was to cut the female avatar,” he explained.

Level designer Bruno St. Andre added that it was indeed in the plans, but because of the extra effort involved, it was eventually left out. He did however hint at the fact that a female main character could be present in future titles.

“I cannot speak for the future of the brand, but it was dear to the production team, so you can expect that it will happen eventually in the brand.”

[Source – Polygon, Image – Ubisoft]