Call of Duty Ghosts will be released in November of this year, with one big difference: users will be able to play the game as a female solider.
While gamers have long been able to play Halo and Gears of War as female characters, it's been a technical limitation of Infinity Ward, the company who makes CoD. Adding a female solider to CoD was considered to be a new technical feature included as part of the new option to customise soldiers in Call of Duty Ghosts. So now, not only can players customise their solider's head and body - they can also change their gender.
Mark Rubin, the executive producer of CoDG, says of the change that they wanted even casual players to feel "connected and engaged" with their character when they play, "We wanted to be as inclusive as we possibly could with character customization. And that's where the idea came from."
The female soldiers are the same size as the male soldiers in Call of Duty Ghosts, as Rubin says they still needed to make the playing field "fair". Having a smaller solider that could easily hide would be an obvious advantage for CoD players, but they say the women will be just as bulky as the men in their armour.
"They might look differently," Rubin explained, "but they'll fill the same area so that your hit-boxes aren't out of whack."
Reactions to the announcement have varied among gamers...
Some were surprised it took so long:
Some were excited by the news:
Some thought it was (kind of) of a feminist victory:
And others were enraged about make-up:
Either way, it will be curious to see how and if the number of female gamers playing CoD is increased by the female soldiers in Call of Duty Ghosts.