In a recent interview with Videogamer, Ubisoft technical director James Therien confirmed that there will be no playable women in Assassin’s Creed Unity. This news has come as a surprise to many considering the four player co-op nature of the title.

Therien explained that the team originally intended for women to be included in the list of playable protagonists, but the idea was later scrapped due to the modelling being too time consuming. He stated that the work load would be ‘doubled’, as animation and clothing would need to be reconsidered, and that it was not a question of choice but a question of production.

While somewhat understandable, it does still seem an unusual reason for not including women in Assassin’s Creed Unity. Female characters have been available for players to select across all the Assassin’s Creed multiplayer modes, and diversity can only really add to a game which focuses around different people playing together. Having included women in previous games, both in protagonist and in multiplayer roles, one would think that Ubisoft have enough knowledge and resources under their belt to be able to pull together an extra model or two.

However, despite all the newly unearthed controversy, Assassin’s Creed Unity is looking to be a beautiful game, which will still bring a new and refreshing take on the Assassin’s Creed series. It will be launching on October 28th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.