"These are people who are uneducated—they don't understand that this is a plausible scenario," EA's Patrick Soderlund tells Gamasutra. "And today gaming is gender-diverse, like it hasn't been before."
As part of an upcoming, wide-ranging interview with EA chief creative officer Patrick Soderlund, the veteran game developer and executive minced no words when asked about EA's take on the recent 'women in Battlefield V' backlash.
"On the [women] in Battlefield, this is something that the development team pushed," Soderlund said in an E3 interview with Gamasutra.
"Battlefield V is a lot about the unseen, the untold, the unplayed," he continued. "The common perception is that there were no women in World War II. There were a ton of women who both fought in World War II and partook in the war."
This is important because late last month, EA unveiled Battlefield V via a trailer and cover that featured women soldiers. A vocal minority took to Twitter claiming that EA was sacrificing historical accuracy and realism for political correctness, despite plenty of available history about women in World War II.
Soderlund rejected those complaints outright.
"We felt like in today's world—I have a 13-year-old daughter that when the trailer came out and she saw all the flak, she asked me, 'Dad, why's this happening?'" Soderlund said.
"She plays Fortnite, and says, 'I can be a girl in Fortnite. Why are people so upset about this?' She looked at me and she couldn't understand it. And I'm like, ok, as a parent, how the hell am I gonna respond to this, and I just said, 'You know what? You're right. This is not okay.'"
"These are people who are uneducated—they don't understand that this is a plausible scenario, and listen: this is a game," he added. "And today gaming is gender-diverse, like it hasn't been before. There are a lot of female people who want to play, and male players who want to play as a badass [woman]."
"And we don't take any flak. We stand up for the cause, because I think those people who don't understand it, well, you have two choices: either accept it or don't buy the game. I'm fine with either or. It's just not ok."
We'll have more from Soderlund later this week.
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