In western developed games it seems those who are developing have found that using larger than life female characters may not bear the required fruit especially as industry has become more competitive. Have western audiences changed, or are developers being a bit more subtle with their sexual content? In times past, we'd see buxom looking characters on the box art or in the advertising, but now there seems less focus on the female forms of this nature. Has the audience matured or is sex no longer a driving force behind selling a game? Here are five reasons why the focus towards sex as a tool for selling games has perhaps changed since those early days.

Audience has potentially matured.

Maybe the industry has, or in Western audiences at least has grown up. At one point having a buxom babe on the box art or even as the lead character was bound to turn heads and get prepubescent boys hot under the collar, but seeing as many of those have now turned into self respecting adults, there's less need to seek sexual thrills via a video game. Obviously journalists can still be turned by scantily clad women used to draw focus towards products at events like E3, but in terms of game coverage, their charms are mostly lost.




Lara's boobs shrunk.

A sign of the times when one of gaming's most iconic females boobs goes from DD to a B or C cup. OK, I'm pulling those figures out of my ass, but you get the picture. Lara in her forthcoming game looks more practical, she's younger yes, but the chest is reduced where it didn't need to be. Crystal Dynamics obviously wanted Lara to be seen beyond the titillating crotch, rear view and bouncing boob shots of the previous games and have opted to shift the focus. The marketing thus far for the new Tomb Raider has very much been more gritty and less about how the character looks. Also looking at more recent female leads, the bigger boobed less realistic looking characters have changed to more athletic builds (Madison in Heavy Rain for example).


Old




New



A shift in focus.


Females can play defining roles in video games but perhaps their feminine charms are no longer the focus and actual solid gameplay is. Developers seemingly now have to produce better games if they are to turn a profit, and although there's a lot of love poured into most games, for them to sell, a bit of depth is required. If you look at some of the games this generation that have relied too heavily on sexual titillation (there are exceptions Bayonetta - 1.78 M sold on Xbox and PS3), and it's clear that the market is in fact quite niche. Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2 for example has only captured the hearts and minds of some 200K gamers compared to over half a million who enjoyed the Xbox original.




Best selling games don't need to use sex.


Look at the best selling games and you'll find very few if any that have overt sexual content. Games like Duke Nukem Forever with its smutty college humour approach hasn't performed as well as more serious games in the same genre. Gamers seem more in tune with shooters where sex doesn't even come into the equation. The action and role playing games don't feature sexual content as much either and if they do, are a bit more subtle.


Amazon's best selling games of 2011:


Boxed Titles

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Just Dance 3

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Battlefield 3

Portal 2

Batman: Arkham City

Just Dance 2

Madden NFL 12

Gears of War 3

Call of Duty: Black Ops


Digital Titles

Battlefield 3

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Deus X: Human Revolution

Rift

The Sims 3(PC download)

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Final Fantasy 11

Dead Island

The Sims 3 (Mac download)

Magicka




Gaming is the wrong medium?


Gaming is perhaps the wrong medium for sexual titillation, especially in the face of the Internet and the fact that most homes have access to it in one form or another. To cross the boundaries and feature overt sexual content with the explicit aim of shocking or causing a stir via the gaming medium seems like a moot point, and whilst some games have generated negative press as a result (Mass Effect), the portrayal of sexual themes out of context generally doesn't do games any favours unless it's for comedic value such as the scenes in Fable 2 or God of War 3.

Posted: Dec 27, 2011 12:19 pm

Source: http://www.msxbox-world.com/features/article/926/is-sex-no-longer-relevant-in-selling-video-games.html