As an industry, we still clearly have a bias towards males characters, with 90% of all video games released in the U.S. and Europe on seventh generation consoles having playable male characters. However, that 51% of games this generation have playable female characters is an incredible accomplishment for our industry and reinforces our progress towards serving ever widening demographics. Even when core (Action, Shooter, RPG, etc.) and casual genres are separated, the percentage of core games with playable female characters remain at a respectable level, while the male/female ratio in casual games reaches parity.     

 
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/the-divnich-debrief-game-sales-unaffected-by-gender-of-main-character/    
 
 The article goes into detail on how the quality of reviews for games that feature a female playable character are not impaired or different from other games. It also mentions how top 10 NPD titles can't really reflect this as the top-selling games tend to be either of an iconic nature (sports, mario) or war and combat, where women are traditionally not at the frontlines. 
 
I'm glad that someone went and made the statistical analysis of this nature to show how far games have progressed in the current generation of systems. 

I'm more concerned about how sexualized the women are depicted than how many of them there are. Does the article cover that?

" I'm more concerned about how sexualized the women are depicted than how many of them there are. Does the article cover that? "

Featuring females as protagonists=/=catering to female gamer wants. Because they're still largely the kind of females that appeal to males as oppose to the kind of female a woman would want to play.  MMOs and party-based games (RPGs) are responsible for those numbers being as they are. You notice how they phrased the term, very clever. How are the numbers for games that allow you to play a female lead character? Probably not great. How about games that only allow you to play a female lead. Probably pretty embarrassing.

" @MrCellophane said:

" I'm more concerned about how sexualized the women are depicted than how many of them there are. Does the article cover that? "

Men in games aren't wimpy geeks either. "

" @MrCellophane: Yeah... because girls NEVER wear anything flaunty in RL either....  "

I don't mind if I'm playing a male or female character in a game. I don't care if the main character in a book is male or female so I don't see why I'd care with a game! I do however think @MrCellophane:  has a point. Especially when games such as Bayonetta come to mind. =p

Erhm... I think you may have misunderstood me. I just asked how many of those 51% femprots are oversexualized Lara Croft clones, and how many are actually depicted in a more "natural" way. "

" @TwoLines said:

" @MrCellophane said:

" I'm more concerned about how sexualized the women are depicted than how many of them there are. Does the article cover that? "

Men in games aren't wimpy geeks either. "

@melcene said:

" @MrCellophane: Yeah... because girls NEVER wear anything flaunty in RL either....  "

Erhm... I think you may have misunderstood me. I just asked how many of those 51% femprots are oversexualized Lara Croft clones, and how many are actually depicted in a more "natural" way. "

Men and women are both depicted as cartoonish ideals from male perspectives. Except, like, a handful of male characters in Japan that are basically made with females in mind.

51%, you say? Didn't know they made that many kitchen based games...

More!
 
I would not have loved certain games as much if I couldn't be my own gender!
It makes the experience, as it should! It's an interactive story we experience! Not a book we read with set in stone characters, which has it charms but not always!

People draw arbitrary lines about what they're comfortable roleplaying as. Basically if you're a white guy, those are the only traits that matter in the transfer. Not your acne, your eye problem, your weight problem, your giant prison bitch lips, none of that. But he must be white and he must be a man, cus that's me! So silly.

" @ryanwho:  That's something I've always though about. How, outside of Metroid, there really aren't many strong, female leads. Who know when we'll see the first African American female lead character?   Also, one thing I though was interesting was a point made by someone on the Bombcast a while ago, in regards to Metroid: Other M. They noted how it can be difficult to make a female lead because if you make her an image of sexuality, you pander to men and objectify her; but if you give her stereotypical "male" qualities, you reduce her to "just" a man. Pretty interesting.  "

Considering how 51% of the human population is female that's an interesting figure to go along by. All in all, I think that's a great thing.

" [...]  Women in RL are just as sexualized (of their own doing!) as women in games. 
"

" @MrCellophane:[...]I still think that many women these days use sexuality to their advantage, and thus why should femprots be exempt from doing the same?[...]   "