Ned Wynert will be the first transgender character to appear in Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft's open-world action franchise. Wynert will play a supporting role to the main characters, Jacob and Evie Fry, giving them quests.
This news comes a year after Ubisoft was criticised for cutting female avatars in Assassin's Creed: Unity's co-op mode, citing additional animation work would be required to include them.
While past games in the series always opened with a statement about the development team's cultural and religious diversity, Syndicate now opens with the following: "Inspired by historical events and characters, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various beliefs, sexual orientations and gender identities."
"Inclusiveness is something that's super important for us as a team," says the game's creative director, Marc-Alexis Côté.
"We've made a good push towards diversity and how we approach different subjects in the game."
He then went on to say that the character's gender has no bearing on the storyline.
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate is set to release October 23 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC version is scheduled to be released later.
NZGamer.com
