Saints Row dev admits 'failures' in portraying women, calls on industry change

The games industry needs to alter the way it portrays women in video games, a senior Saints Row developer has said.

"I think it's fair to be called out on your s**t. I think that it's a sad man that can never be self-reflective.

Volition studio creative director Steve Jaros has said be believes Feminist Frequency's Anita Sarkeesian was right to include Saints Row content in her latest Tropes Vs Women in Video Games installment, and that the entire games industry should work to improve on it portrayal of women.

"This is something we all should be better at," he said, speaking on Twitter. "Yes, the original saints Row is listed here. Yes, it should be."

Gamespot reports that Jaros also told The Escapist that the use of abuse against women as background content in games should stop.

"I think that we shouldn't be portraying senseless abused women and I think that if I could go back and hop in a time machine I would have done things differently," he said.

"I think it's fair to be called out on your s**t. I think that it's a sad man that can never be self-reflective. I think that we tried to go and carry ourselves with respect, and try to respect sexuality and respect gender as much as we can, and sometimes we fail but hopefully we'll do better and continue to get better."

Jaros added that the Volition team is now mindful of sexually objectifying women in the Saints Row games.

It was confirmed over the weekend that both Saints Row IV for PS4 and Xbox One and a standalone co-op game, Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, will hit in January.