Square Enix only publisher to approve female lead for Life is Strange

Japanese publisher Square Enix is the only company that would agree to publish Dontnod Entertainment’s latest title with its female lead character unchanged.

The French studio has released a new developer diary about its episodic new title, which sees players follow the story of a girl with the ability to bend time, GameSpot reports. During the video, creative director Jean-Maxime Moris discussed the conditions some publishers demanded when Dontnod approached them.

"Square is basically the only publisher who didn’t want to change a single thing about the game," she said. "We had other publishers telling us to make it a male lead character, and Square didn’t even question that once."

Dontnod faced tough times following the commercial flop of their previous title, Remember Me – which also featured a female lead – but things are looking more promising thanks to this partnership with Square Enix.

Life is Strange is due this year for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC.

Female characters in games became something of a hot topic last year after Ubisoft revealed it had abandoned the idea of having a female playable character for Assassin’s Creed Unity.