According to a new whisper on the digital streets, Sony’s PlayStation Studios is currently looking to develop a new game centered on a male-to-female transgender protagonist who seeks to prove herself against the misogynistic values of her culture.
Word of this title’s development was first raised on June 20th courtesy of the noted, Spanish-language PlayStation fan news account @NotiPlay_.
Detailing a casting call they would later purport to have witnessed firsthand, the account explained that the game was looking to feature “a girl of 20- to 30- years of age, of dark skin and transgender” who was “an expert in knives” as its protagonist.
Further, they noted that its story would also center on “how their culture does not accept women as leaders in their community.”
Met with an understandable wave of skepticism in response to their post, @Notiplay_ would return to the topic two days later to “clarify some things” regarding their claims.
Addressing some of the most common criticisms leveled against them, the news account asserted, “It was never a bait, it is 100% real. The info was taken from a page where you have to register to see the casting calls (there are also Ubisoft, Activision and other SIE games). I claim that it is a PlayStation Studios game because the casting director’s history 99% of the time worked for SIE.”
“Trust me guys,” the account added, “I would never go into the mud without being 100% sure of things with a sensitive topic like this.”
Unfortunately, for those curious (and those still skeptical), @Notiplay_ has yet to provide any further details regarding the casting call, including the identity of its casting director or the exact resource from which they first gleamed the information.
To this end, while the exact trustworthiness of the account’s rumor has yet to be reasonably concluded, it is given at least some level of credence due to the fact that those teams under the PlayStation Studios banner have, in recent years, shown themselves being more and more open towards tackling such topics in their games.
For example, in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, one of Abby’s traveling companion, Lev, was created and portrayed as a transgender individual (their voice actor, Ian Alexander, themselves identifies as non-binary).
Likewise, in 2023, the Crash Bandicoot series received its first non-binary character in the form of Catbat, a new fighter created for Toys for Bobs’ Crash Team Rumble.
And of course, there’s Firewalk Studios’ recently revealed Concord, which not only seems to have been designed explicitly by ‘checkmarking diversity’, but specifically features each character’s pronouns on their respective character select screens.
At current, neither Sony nor PlayStation have offered any official comment on @Notiplay_’s supposed scoop.