Do girl characters doom Video games?

Now I'd like it if nobody got the wrong idea. I'm not here on some sexist venture to put down women in gaming. No, actually I've heard a few interesting comments from a couple of friends of mine. I'd like to hear what people on the Wii forum think of these statements. I won't give their names, instead I'll point out their 'console of preference'.
This is pretty much how things started. I can't remember the exact words, but I'll try to do a decent job writing them out.

1. Male Wii-360 Owner (But he says he likes all three): "Haven't you noticed how games with female stars sort of disappear quickly? No matter how great reviewers say the game is, they always tend to just sort of... vanish.
Metroid Prime 3, Okami, Heavenly Sword, and Super Princess Peach were heavily praised by reviewers. But after they were released, they didn't become major hotspots like they were 'supposed to'. A lot of gamers liked them, but they just didn't make a huge splash."

Well, that's how it started. Then there was this (or something to this effect)-

2. Female Wii owner: -Laughs... a lot.- "I know what you mean. That's just how it is. A lot of boys just naturally stay away from games with girls. They doom games because they cut out a chunk of their audience.

-I said something like "I can see how that would happen. I imagine Halo wouldn't have as huge a following if Master Chief was a girl."

Female Wii owner: "Exactly. Developers are aware of it. Character gender pretty much dictates how a game is marketed. I read this article on Okami in Nintendo Power. It was all about the characters and stuff. Not once did they mention that the wolf is a girl. In fact, if I didn't remember from the PS2 game, I wouldn't know she was a girl from all the Wii stuff I'm seeing. Its like they play it down."

This is where things got a little heated. The next comment comes from...

3. ? Owner (I know he plays Halo): "Guys should play guy games, girls can play Cooking Mama. Halo is a man's game, Master Chief couldn't be a woman. Nintendo ruined Samus by making her a girl. They 'f---ed' up one of their mascots. They should have made Kirby the girl and Samus the dude. Then she could compete with Master Chief.

-Me: "Metroid came out years before Halo."

? Owner: "Whatever. When a dude hears about a game and finds out a girl is starring in it, he instantly discounts it. Its like 'oh, I bet someone'll enjoy that'. The fact is more dudes play and buy games. So which do you think they'll be buying? How many games starring girls do you have?"

-Me: "Hmm... Well... Not a whole lot. In fact I can't think of any right now. I do have Metroid Prime 1, Lost Kingdoms, and a few others."

Male Wii-360: "Ha. I have Perfect Dark Zero and a few handhelds with girls. But that's pretty much it. I guess games with girls are just always going to be lacking popularity. The truth is, a lot of guys don't want to play as girls."

I'll stop there. I'll go ahead and admit I can see some truth in this. When the Wii's greatest titles are mentioned its always Legend of Zelda, Mario Galaxy, and... Metroid Prime Three is sort of an afterthought. a lot of Wii owners praise it, but never played it.

Does having a female protagonist make you shy away from a game? How many games do you own star a girl? Do you believe there's a trend of these games underachieving in the market? Discuss honestly. Heh..

I have to agree. Its been deemed by plenty of reviewers as the greatest and most innovative of Wii (and over other controls) FPS controls. And of course it is considered one of the best adventure titles on the Wii. But do you think more people would have bought it if the main character was a guy?
I don't own it, but not because of a gender issue. I just don't care for first-person shooters. But outside of a Wii 'must-have', what about other games with female stars?
Also I've tried MP3, its pretty awesome. I'm just reluctant to spend $50 on a game I wouldn't play too often. Heh...

I think there is some validity to the idea that girl games don't sell as well, but I think some of the specific games mentioned aren't really cases of that at all.

Looking at MP3, I would cite its lack of sales more to the complete lack of advertisement from Nintendo of America as well as that Metroid games have always had a very niche following to begin with. Dating back to the original Metroid, the series has always received rave reviews, but never found quite the popularity of its cousins, Mario and Zelda. Part of this is the strange nature of the game itself. The exploration, collecting, and backtracking aspects of Metroid define the series for fans, but turn many people off. In fact, most people sight the backtracking and general feeling of being lost as the reason they don't like Metroid, while fans of the series state these exact aspects as the things they love most.
Also, Metroid Prime 1 sold well over a million copies on Gamecube. This would seem to indicate that lack of "a splash" for MP3 is more MP3's fault than the fault of Samus' gender.

As for Okami, I think it sold poorly due to being too unique. I a market dominated by sequels and rip off's of other games, it is difficult enough to get a new IP off the ground. This rings especially true when said IP does not fit into the normal realm of "gritty realistic shooter" or "Anime inspired RPG" that dominate the market today. Okami also suffered due to its release period. The game derives much of its appeal from its unique and gorgeous art style. Unfortunately, it came out at a time when everyone was thinking about high definition games like Gears of War and the new PS3 and Wii systems about to come out. Most of the PS2 owners who would be interested in something unique and beautiful were already upgrading to next gen., or saving money to do so, leaving Okami out in the cold, surrounded by the rest of the PS2 crowed who were only interested in GTA and the next Madden.

Aside from that though, gaming is still a very male dominated area. While more and more girls are picking up games, a large portion of developers are still men, and cater to what guys, their primary audience, want to play. There is definitely a social aspect to this as well. It is acceptable for a guy to play Halo, but not for him to play Princess Peach without getting laughed at by the "hardcore" crowd. There is a biased towards the masculine side of gaming, and that will not change significantly for a long time to come.

I also think that games are male dominated

I'm a guy myself and I play games like cooking mama, kameo, animal crossing, the sims and the sims 2, even princess peach because its a good game infact almost all games with girls rock

But I can name more games were the main character is a guy than games with girls like Halo, Assasins creed, Devil may cry, Scarface, mario games, sonic games, harry potter, Grand theft auto and A LOT MORE and most games with men in are so CRAP!

I wonder what the ? owner means by Samus not being able to compete with Master Cheif, if by popularity then right now he'd be right but if he means in a fight then Samus could easily go screw attack (the 2D games version) and fly around immune to almost everything shot at her while being able to destroy others in one hit.

But I don't think female characters change the sales much at all, to a casual 7-9 year old audience maybe but never to the hardcore gamers.

The first Metroid Prime is still frequently talked about, and so is Super Metroid (which is 14 years old). Tomb Raider, which is now over 10 years old, is still quite popular. Beyond Good and Evil is another game that is still talked about. Okami, by the way, did not disappear at all. Neither did Metroid Prime 3, but Okami was talked about for the rest of 2006 and even into 2007 (with all the begging for an Okami Wii port, which I am happy to see is finally happening). Regarding Heavenly Sword and Super Princess Peach, it's just that they were both underwhelming games. The original Tomb Raider was huge back when it came out, by the way, and the franchise still sells.

Female lead characters are a rarity, but I certainly wouldn't say they "doom games". If anything, a good female lead (like Jade from Beyond Good and Evil) makes a game even more memorable.

i had no problem what-so-ever playing as claire and jill in resident evil...to be honest i kinda stay away from games that have a female role who dresses like a stripper or who is very misproportioned... i find that tactic very tacky and unessesary

I thought the metroid games always did well? Plus, most people forget she is a girl, and see it as some kind of robot, or guy.