A video game programmer has claimed that DICE originally intended to include female soldiers in Battlefield 1.

Amandine Coget previously worked on Star Wars: Battlefront, which features playable soldiers of both sex on the side of the Empire as well as the Rebel Alliance, and this month she revealed on Twitter that Battlefield 1 was to receive similar treatment.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. The original BF1 pitch given onstage was WW1, with one caveat: "screw realism, we're adding female soldiers, because we're way overdue". — Amandine Coget (@LiaSae) June 12, 2016

That is until it was decided that female soldiers weren't in keeping with the game's historical setting.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. I'll sum up the key points.

Turns out BF1 was going for realism after all! Female chars matter but "it's just not the game we're making". — Amandine Coget (@LiaSae) June 12, 2016

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. If we go with this game? Check how many tanks were involved and how they worked. Check the lethality of parachutes. That's just two. — Amandine Coget (@LiaSae) June 12, 2016

Needless to say, the decision made Coget pretty angry. As beautiful as the Battlefield 1 footage we've seen is, 'realism' doesn't seem to be the developer's primary concern so why enforce it in the soldiers' genders?

The decision not to include female models in multiplayer games has reared its head many times over the past few years, most notably when Ubisoft removed lady-be-shankers from Assassin's Creed Unity.

Battlefield 1's gritty World War One skirmishes are more grounded in reality, but for some, that won't excuse shutting the door to ladies due to a technicality.

After all, women participated in almost every other aspect of the war effort except front-line combat, why not make a small amendment?

Battlefield 1 is currently scheduled for release on October 21.

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