Call of Duty introduces series’ first nonbinary character with ‘they/them’ pronouns
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is breaking theoretical glass ceilings with the inclusion of a nonbinary character for the first time in its series.
The character named Volta Rossi is of Italian descent and described as “a street-smart rogue with a blue-blood pedigree.”
“Volta Rossi is an enigma who left the comfort of aristocracy to forge a new name as a [human intelligence] specialist,” the game explains.
As reported by the Gamer, Rossi is the only character that uses they/them pronouns in its description.
“Their ties to the Luttazzi family give them unique insight into Avalon,” the caption reads.
Other character descriptions use he/him and she/her, marking a likely intentional move by developer Activision.
Photos of the character online show a strange, sparse-eyed individual, which aligns with the modern reimagining of femineity that major studios have typically adopted in recent years. Female characters have increasingly been designed to be unattractive, using traits such as masculine jawlines and figures, sometimes coupled with obesity.
Some have argued that the new character is a natural progression from Agent Bell, who appeared in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which was released in 2020.
The character’s origin was purposely left open-ended, leaving it to the user to decide their birthplace and gender.
For gender options, gamers could select male, female, nonbinary, or “classified.”
Outlets pointed out that when using the nonbinary or classified options, the character did not make any noises when getting injured for some reason.
With an October 25 release, it’s difficult to predict how this news may affect sales.
Given how hard big-budget games have suffered in 2024 once fans become aware developers are pushing diversity-driven story arcs, the move seems to be a big risk for studio Treyarch.
For example, Sony’s Concord lost approximately $100 million after closing shop following just 14 days online. The game was highly criticized for morbidly obese characters and the excessive use of pronouns.
“Even the robot has pronouns,” gamer Kabrutus, owner of DEI Detected, said in a review at the time. The writer showed off an image of a robot in the game that had “he/him” pronouns on the character select screen.
However, given the young age of the Call of Duty fanbase and the massive success of the franchise, the brand may be too big to fail.
According to Variety, Call of Duty: Black Ops IV pulled over $500 million in its first three days of release in 2018, which was about the same as its predecessor.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War sold approximately 5.7 million copies in its first month, GameRant reported.
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