No Female Characters In Aliens: Colonial Marines?

According to a news report that appeared online earlier today, Gearbox has confirmed that while Aliens: Colonial Marines, its latest first-person shooting action opus, will have a customizable character creation mode, it will not include the options for women – a strange choice considering that one of the key characters in the franchise is Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.

Gearbox has promised an “extensive upgrade system that allows players to customize their characters to play the way they want”, though that system apparently doesn’t spread to the opposite sex.  

In retaliation, a petition has been started up to convince Gearbox to change their minds by a woman known as Melissa K., and it’s already extended past the original goal of signatures.  Perhaps now Gearbox will listen…?

“While we fully support Gearbox, we would like to request the inclusion of playable females.  The Aliens franchise is dominated by strong females such as Ripley, Vasquez, Ferro, Dietrich and most importantly, the Queen,” said Melissa in her petition.

Hopefully Gearbox will listen.  We’ll see what happens…