Female character option cut from Assassin's Creed: Unity co-op

UPDATE 11/06 06:20 BST: Unity creative director Alex Amancio has attempted to defuse the situation by explaining that the other characters you see in Unity co-op were never meant to be avatars.

ORIGINAL STORY: Ubisoft has cut the option to play as women in Assassin's Creed Unity co-op, the developer has said at E3.

You will always see yourself as the game's revolutionary hero Arno, apparently, while friends who join your game appear as other customisable male assassins.

Alex Amancio, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, which employs over 2600 people, told Polygon the decision was down to a lack of resources.

"It's double the animations, it's double the voices, all that stuff and double the visual assets," he said. "Especially because we have customisable assassins. It was really a lot of extra production work.

"Because of that, the common denominator was Arno. It's not like we could cut our main character, so the only logical option, the only option we had, was to cut the female avatar."

"We started, but we had to drop it," level designer Bruno St. Andre added. "I cannot speak for the future of the brand, but it was dear to the production team, so you can expect that it will happen eventually in the brand."

It's a surprising move for the series, which has traditionally featured strong female characters - such as Aveline de Grandpré, star of Assassin's Creed: Liberation - and always allowed you to play as women in multiplayer.

It turns out the latter won't be possible in Unity either, because producer Vincent Pontbriand confirmed in a Twitch live-stream last night that Unity will be the first game since Assassin's Creed 2 not to feature any form of competitive multiplayer.

"We're not bringing the PVP mode back this year. You'll have to wait it out," he said.