Activision won't slap a female in the leading role of AAA games because it believes females don't shift software.

That's according to Gamasutra quoting a former employee source, who says Activision specifically ordered the axing of a female lead that was planned for a previous project.

That Treyarch-produced project in 2007 was called Black Lotus, a Hong Kong based action game starring an Asian female modeled on actress Lucy Liu. "Black Lotus was a great project internally," the source said.

"We were all very proud of what we were trying to make and the team was excited. We made great progress."

But Halo 3, Modern Warfare and Assassin's Creed were the blockbuster hits of that year, which led Activision to draw rather different opinions of Black Lotus. "We were all on board, and then Activision killed it, said they don't do female characters because they don't sell," Gama was told.

Another source said: "Activision gave us specific direction to lose the chick." That game later gained the male lead Activision wanted, and because True Crime: Hong Kong, due out on 360, PS3 and PC this November.

Sources also claimed that Activision keenly follows trends, and would look to games like Bayonetta and Wet to support its theory that female-led games don't sell.

This, they say, restricts creativity among the developers working with the publishing giant. "If Activision does not see a female lead in the top five games that year, they will not have a female lead," they said.

Activision, meet Lara Croft, Samus Aran and Mirror's Edge girl Faith.

Speaking to Gama, Activision specifically denies the report, saying "Activision respects the creative vision of its development teams," said the company in a statement. "The company does not have a policy of telling its studios what game content they can develop, nor has the company told any of its studios that they cannot develop games with female lead characters."

In regard to True Crime, it went on: "Activision did not mandate the gender of the lead character. Activision uses market research in order to better understand [what] gamers are looking for."

I instantly thought of Tomb Raider too.

If a game is good enough, it doesn't matter whether the lead is male/female/neither.

Um, the True Crime games are effing rubbish. Try making a decent game before you worry about marketing the lead character, you dolts.

A more current one that has also sold very well is Mirror's Edge.

The developers initially projected a total of three million copies of Mirror's Edge to be sold but in February 2009 Electronic Arts reported sales of over one million.

Nobody remember 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'