Dishonored 2

Women play video games. This is no longer some theory, agenda, or belief — it’s hardened fact.

42%, if you’re looking for more precise numbers. And, yet, gaming studios continue to ignore the desires of a huge chunk of their own demographics in favour of clinging on to old, outdated tropes of who their audience really consists of; the financial implications of alienating so much of their own audience having seemingly not crossed their minds.

There is change out there though. It may be slow, and cautious in its advance, but there’s a new frontier that’s been gradually developing at the edges of mainstream gaming; one that sees Emily Kaldwin, the protagonist at the centre of certainly loom large.

The stealth game sequel focuses in on Emily for good reason, too; being a natural hook through which to progress the original’s story. s director Harvey Smith reveals the idea for a second instalment came after the development of the DLC package The Brigmore Witches, which focused on painter and coven leader Delilah Copperspoon, the main antagonist of

Knowing that a return to the game would prove popular, Smith says: “For the new project, it was blue sky. I thought about picking up with Corvo, another plague and other ideas, but it just wasn’t that exciting. Very early on in that process, the idea struck me that if we advanced the timeline by 15 years, we could position a story around Emily, losing her throne and being on the run from Dun-