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There’s a fine line that game developers have to walk when it comes to balancing the objectification of women with the old adage that sex sells. At least, that’s what I’d like to say, but let’s face it: The largest demographic for video games is straight men ages 18-35, most of whom range somewhere from indifferent to “give me more!” on the scale of how ok it is to make female video game characters look as oversexed as possible. Given that, it’s hard to fault them for giving Ivy boobs that are each literally as big as her head (they’re even larger in the game than what’s shown here) or for putting Sophitia in an outfit that would quickly render her immodest in real life once she started jumping and dodging. Granted, most games don’t take it that far, but the ones that do really stand out, no breast-size pun intended.

I have to wonder how much of a hit the Soul Caliber series would have taken in sales had the women been more conservatively proportioned. Probably not too much. Then again, I also have to wonder if a series like Dead or Alive, with its ridiculous moon-physics engine dedicated solely to keeping the game’s mammaries bouncing for several seconds after the rest of the characters’ bodies stopped moving, would have even been a series without that oversexualization.

If you feel like weighing in on this, please do so.

Image coutesy of Deviant Artist Celtzombie.

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