Microsoft wants to create more diverse gaming storylines to appeal to women gamers

According to a Microsoft narrative writer, women are the “new core” when it comes to gaming. No longer are they a small percentage of the gaming market. Microsoft wants to create more diverse storylines and add more female characters and ethnicities for better gaming, especially for women.

“Women are not a small special market on the fringe of the core. Women are the new core,” claims Tom Abernathy, a narrative writer for Microsoft Studios. Abernathy believes that current games do not keep up with today’s social culture and the market for video games is changing too fast for developers and publishers to keep up.

“Our audience is leaving us behind. The world is changing, it has already changed, and we have not been doing a very good job of keeping up with it, Abernathy adds. Apparently 30% of US gamers are women! At least according to data from the Entertainment Software Association and game developer PopCap Games.

Having much more diverse games would obviously be good for the gaming industry as it allows for games to be given a wider audience. “Nobody in the room admits to being against making characters female or nonwhite. But they’re scared because they don’t know how to defend that choice to their bosses. Our industry, our art, and our business stand to gain in every sense simply by holding a mirror up to our audience and reflecting their diversity in what we produce,” Abernathy adds.