This is a false perception, as can easily be seen by the numerous examples of female protagonists featured in games, particularly in Japanese games. In fact, for many gamers, we have a preference for playing female because our psychology is more aligned with that mindset. More accurately, we prefer playing a feminine character regardless of physical six (i.e., as feminine and masculine are socially defined concepts in any particular culture).

This was one of the more interesting aspects of a successful game such as Half-Life, for example. Gordon Freeman is a scientist, a theoretical physicist, not a soldier or "badass" male. Sure, he is in good shape and Black Mesa trains people at firearms usage, but it isn't his main forte' or that of other scientists at the facility. This made the character far more appealing/creates a sense of empathy for many of us and it can certainly be argued that it was one of the reasons for the success of the first game and the later success of the franchise as a whole.

The same can be said for Shion Usuki, the main heroine of the epic Xenosaga franchise. She is primarily a scientist and engineer, but also does martial arts as a hobby and to stay in physical shape. This makes her much more appealing that a female "badass". She's completely capable of physically defending herself, of course, but she doesn't have to be "badass" or have some type of masculine attitude or presentation of herself to achieve such an outcome.

I don't think people are over thinking it, here are a few examples....

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-19-why-publishers-refuse-games-such-as-remember-me-because-of-their-female-protagonists Publishers passed on Remember Me because it had a Female Protagonist.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121064-Naughty-Dog-Flat-Out-Refused-to-Change-Last-of-Us-Cover For The Last of Us Naughty Dog were pushed to put Ellie on the back of the box, not the front.

And there was Bioshock Infinite where the female character did get shoved onto the back of the box and that female character was the real star of the game.

We're in the 21st century yet the game industry by and large seems to be living in the 1950's.

The largest demographic of gamers is male so it makes sense.

There might be a reason for that, the industry makes little effort when it comes to attracting female gamers, in fact it seems to go out of it's way to put them off.

Why don't they have more men in the feminine hygiene commercials? Im getting sick of this gender specific marketing projecting the image that we as men never think about it.

Maybe thats a good marketing angle? The packaging is so that it won't embarrass a man who is on the errand to purchase some for his woman.

What the hell is the issue?

sigh...

Change the packaging? Are you mad?

Use the packaging as is as part of an advertising campaign.

Man moving through a crowded store. Being stared at. Whispers and smirks. Man repeating at every step, "Its for my wife."

Pure gold.

I always liked Sam Kinison's take on buying "girl" products for one's woman...but then a guy striding boldly up to the checkout and slap the product on the counter while exclaiming exuberantly "YES! I'VE GOT A WOMAN!!!!" wouldn't be very Fallouty.

Most game companies, in games that allow a choice of gender, default to male in advertisemants (and canon, usually), and if they stick with the traditional box art then you can just go ahead and presume whatever you want is inside that helmet. Man, woman, helium balloon, attack helicopter, whatever.

I get the idea of wanting to see a woman in ads since it's roughly the same reason why just being able to play as one can decide whether I get a game or not. But, I don't care about it in ads because the female in the ads would just be some vault chick, not *my* PC so she'd be as irrelevant to me as the generic dude they use.

Really who cares. As a male who plays female characters, its not big deal who is on the advertisemants, trailers, etc. This is Fallout not Vampire: Bloodlines. I'm sure Jeannette help sell copies of Bloodlines but that is a who different genre of RPG.

While marketing around female characters is not a thing i find wrong i do hope it remains classy. Seeing the so many-eth game advertised by scarcely clad buxumous women just for the sake of getting straight males intersted in it realy just puts me off. I tend to not buy a game if it in my opinion over-sixualizes a female in order to promote itself, as i find it tacky as hell. Now showing of a woman kicking some ass and doing it while both looking good yet believable (ie fully clothed please) is perfectly fine, but the somanieth version of spandexed clothed heroine kicking ass with E cups is just making me go "Meh".

So i dont mind them using a male lead to promote, just like i dont mind a well done female lead in a trailer, solong as it remains non-sixualized and such i am fine with it.

PS: i am a male gamer, so this is no feminist remark, i genuiely dislike those sixualization tactics.

Well, the trailer has pretty much replaced Box Art in our digital age.

it would be nice for once to have a female shown instead of a male..

I begin to wonder if they are just a bunch of misogynists.

Was I talking to you?

It doesn't matter to me who they use in the promo but I'll admit it would be nice to see a woman (when there's a choice such as FO4). We got to see approximately 5 seconds of the wife/protagonist in the game demo, as Mr. Howard slowly said, "And yes you can play as a female". Sigh.

Women gamers have to be tough to put up with some of the insults and yet we keep gaming despite it all. For the most part we are forgotten, ignored, and delegated to the casual/mobile market. A little recognition would go a long way. It seems like we are supposed to feel lucky that they have female protagonists at all.

Disclaimer: No I am not a feminist, nor a SJW, just a woman who enjoys playing games.

Bethesda?! Really? I've been playing their games for a long time and can't see that at all. As for featuring a woman in a trailer, it would be nice if they did, no biggie for me if they don't. To me it's what's in-game that matters, not the iconic advertising image. On the other hand, I'd consider it problematic if screenshots in magazine articles featured only the male survivor, and I do want to know things like what the female animations look like.

I'd like to see more examples of the female PC, but in the end, it's really not that important to me.

Maybe they are, but consider what the Fallout Universe's equivalent of the chainmail bikini would be and ask yourself, "Do I really want to see this, AGAIN?!!?"