Quantic Dream's executive producer and co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumiere has told GameSpot that the studio "categorically refused" to have a gun-wielding Ellen Page on the cover of their upcoming title, Beyond: Two Souls.
Commenting on when a cover featuring an armed Jodie, Page's character, was first proposed de Fondaumiere noted "it's kind of natural for agencies, you know, who are far away from the project, to pitch you different things. 'It's a videogame? Okay, it needs to have a gun otherwise it's not even a game'.
"But our job is to make sure that everyone understands what is specific about this game and to make sure we have the right pack shot, and the right imagery supporting the project, and the right image is being communicated to the public."
De Fondaumiere added that the French developer has "to be very careful" about how it markets the game to a broad audience. "We're working very closely with the marketing folks at Sony to portray the game in the right light, to be able to talk to that diverse audience that we hope we will be able to reach with Beyond."
Life Heavy Rain before it Beyond: Two Souls will be a story driven adventure focusing on complex emotions, however, the game's supernatural themes make for moments of confrontation which are not the focus of the title according to de Fondaumiere.
"Indeed, there is some action in Beyond," he commented, "but if, for instance, put a pack that's solely featuring action, first of all it's not going to be truthful to what the game is and then, your wife for instance, is not going to feel attracted to this. She'll say 'okay, well that's not unique, it's one of your videogames'.
"So we need to be careful and to make sure that whenever we communicate on this game that we manage to get across this variety in themes and this uniqueness the project holds," he added.
Beyond: Two Souls is being released exclusively on PS3 on October 8th.
