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Battlefield 1 developer DICE has said that 'it's a shame' they didn't initially include female soldiers in the World War I-based shooter.
Speaking with GamesRadar+, DICE executive producer Aleksander Grondal dismissed the notion that the developer is merely hopping on a bandwagon by including women in Battlefield V, something which provoked an extreme backlash among a select group of gamers.
'I mean, if we were getting on the bandwagon, I created Battlefield 1, and we could've 'jumped on the bandwagon' that time around,' he said.
'I think it’s a shame we didn’t [add women], because that perhaps would've been better for us. I don’t think it’s a bandwagon thing, I think it’s about gamers wanting to express themselves in different ways. If you take a look at Battlefield historically, it’s been about expressing yourself through gameplay, solving problems the way you want to, and these characters fall perfectly in line with that thinking.'
While Battlefield 1 launched without any female soldiers, they later featured as part of the Russian Army in the expansion In the Name of the Tsar. With Battlefield V however, they're one of the main playable forces in the game.
Battlefield V is due out for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on October 19, with an Open Beta due out in early September.
The shooter will feature a battle royale mode, although it's been confirmed that DICE is not the team behind it.
