If you pre-order the new Assassin’s Creed game with Amazon you get a nifty download cloak for your Xbox avatar - but only if you’re male.
Amazon exclusively offered a free download of an outfit worn by Ezio, the main character, in the new game in the Assassin’s Creed series: Revelations.
My sister, Eleanor, being the game loving girl that she is dutifully pre-ordered her copy of the popular Xbox Live game with Amazon and got her download code. So far so good Amazon.
Unfortunately when she proceeded to download the clothing item for her online avatar a screen popped up telling her she was not entitled to this item as her avatar is female and this item is only for males, maybe she should pass it on to someone more… penis-y.
Well not in those exact words – IN THESE EXACT WORDS:
“Can’t redeem your code because the item only fits a male avatar. Your avatar is female. You may want to share this code with a friend who has a male avatar.”
Essentially this is the online equivalent of Eleanor visiting a real life game shop offering free cloaks with a purchase and being told she can’t have one as she is the wrong gender.
“I can’t get my “reward for choosing Amazon” because I’m a girl? I laughed a lot when the message came up because I was in disbelief. I thought we were past this in gaming.” Eleanor said.
Female gamers are becoming a larger part of the online gaming community each year. According to study conducted by the Entertainment Software Association in 2010, 40% of the game playing population is female, and women 18 or older now comprise 33% of all gamers.
The biggest kicker may be that the item in question, Ezio’s cloak, is actually available as a female avatar costume option to buy and wear from the avatar marketplace. So why the male-only download Amazon?
“This is just proving that higher up someone thinks women don’t play games, and definitely don’t pre-order them.” said Eleanor.
Click for extended blog on this over at Huffington Post
This is so bad. I was so annoyed by lack of clothing choice when I was making my Xbox live avatar for the first time. What makes this worse is definitely that the cloak is available for male avatars when you pay for it, what reason is there for Amazon not to let female avatars have it? Bad move Amazon. Bad move.
Don’t current equality laws make this illegal??
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Dont overreact! This is as honest a mistake as anyone can make. The person who got the codes or amazon probably didn’t think they needed gender specific codes, but it was the responsibility of the person issuing the codes to inform them of that. So before you begin lighting the torches, please sit back and consider that the person may have simply been misinformed. These things happen, we know that there are just as many female gamers out there as there are guys, but I’m sure instead of writing a feminist style complaint on the Internet and getting it passed around, why not simply write them and ask to swap your code for a female one. That is why these companies have customer service departments.
This happened with Mortal Kombat for the 360. The codes are random some people get male codes, some get female codes. Check some forums. You are likely to find males with female codes wanting to trade for a male one. That is how I got my Scorpion costume for my avatar.
I don’t think this is necessarily Amazon’s fault. The pre-order promotions are supplied to a retailer by the company that makes the game. So you should be upset with Ubisoft, not Amazon.
I’ve received both a male and a female code from Amazon — the male one first and then the female one. While I’m glad they sent the female one as well, suggesting someone realised there was a mess-up, the original email had no mention of gender at all. Someone along the line didn’t think that women might want it too. That’s disturbing enough to warrant pointing out.