Women want to be represented in games. Makes sense. I never really cared myself if the main character was male or female. Nathan Drake or Laura Croft - didn't matter to me as long as there was treasure to be found.
I'd played enough games where you were a gender-less yellow blob or red square with no back story back in the 80's that I never really gave it thought.
BUT for my younger niece, this was literally the first questions she would ask when i tried to introduce her to a new game when she was about five: "can I be a girl?". A thing that didn't really matter to me, it meant the world to her.
And even now at ten, it might still make the difference in whether she plays the game or not. I dont know if I could get her to play Steamworld Dig 1 as Rusty, but she just saw me playing 2, (where you are a girl, well... robot.. you have pigtails), and she stopped and was like "what's this?". That detail caught her eye.
The time I was really wowed by it all was when i bought her a dinosaur game for DS. She wanted to be a girl but you could only be a boy. I looked at her game and saw her name she chose was like Susan or something. I said "why did you name the boy Susan?". This adorable six year old looked up and said, "I thought if I gave him a girl's name, the game would realize that and make him a girl."
It opened my eyes to just how few games let you pick a character's gender or color. Now for me - Im not bothered whether I'm a doctor or plumber, black or white, male or female. But if it is important to some people, why not throw that option in?
Easy to say I know - i dont develop games - and adding "create a character" or 2 characters to pick from makes it so plot, cut scenes, dialog, etc may all need to be changed. Plus most people would want something different in how those characters play.
We do see more games adding the option - Animal Crossing lets you pick from the beginning, lots of RPGs have done it for years. The new Crash remake allowed you to play as Crash's sister. And seeing more games Horizon Zero Dawn, Darksiders 3, Hellblade, etc with main protagonists that are female is most welcome.
But what about Nintendo? The last first party games with a main character that was female i can think of are Metroid or the Princess Peach game on DS. And one of your powers in that was TO CRY.... Talk about sexist. Yes she could get angry too, but your power was that she's overly emotional.. Hmmm let that set in.... And in the first Metroid, it was hidden that Samus was a girl; when she finally came out of the suit - she's been more of a sexy pin-up character online more than respected as a tough space marine.
So what to do about that? Half your gamers are girls. Its been made clear women want representation. You can take a game and add options, or add a character (like adding Toadette to 2D Mario - which is a character that makes the game easier... ahem... Nintendo may not be "getting this").
But what about NEW IP!?
You have a remake of the old game Link's Awakening, coming to the Switch at the end of the year. And its a good game. But Ive already played it and beaten it on my 3DS, so truthfully I'm not very excited.
On top of that you have lots of people complaining about the art style, since its a "Link" game. So why just recycle an old game, and add an art style to a franchise people might not be keen on? (I like the art). When you could do something BIGGER.
Here would have been the perfect solution. Make a game called ZELDA. And get this - its really Zelda. You have a strong female character in your Nintendo Universe already. She has magic, she's been in Smash Bros. People like her. It would be a new game and new IP. Sure you could still use assets from game's where Link was the main character - but the art style could have been hers to claim, (especially if you used a Wind Waker version). Do it Nintendo!!!!! Just... Zelda...
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