Gender locked race?

[PangTong]

I'll acknowledge there's a possibility that they still have either male viera or another male-only race that has yet to be revealed. However everything about the way they presented Viera suggest that this is all they have. If they really did have something else up their sleeve you would expect them to at least hint at it, rather than just keep people completely in the dark. Especially with the remarks about Viera being the "last new race", it would be in especially poor taste for them to try and trick people into thinking they haven't got anything else when they really do. There's nothing for them to gain by keeping it secret, they're just going to have the community at their necks for months to confirm one way or the other. Not even mentioning male Viera or any other race AT ALL is what you would expect them to do if they have absolutely nothing else. They know that this revelation would be bad press at what is supposed to be their big PR event to promote the expansion, so they blatantly sidestepped the obvious question. They want to allow people to speculate and hold on to hope that they might still have something to show when they really don't, with the official deconfirmation coming at a time and place where the bad publicity will be minimized.

If Viera are really female only and there is no other new race, then they've really only made half a race, which is poor form for this team that gives the appearance of cutting more and more corners as the game goes on.
If male Viera are playable but they are holding out for a "just kidding" moment at Tokyo fanfest then they're stupid because in the meantime they're going to generate nothing but negative feedback from people who think Viera are gender locked.
If they're adding some other playable male-only race, or a second variant of female Viera, then they made a dumb decision. Not just because they're tricking people for no reason but because they already went through this once before in 1.0, where female Roegadyn and male Miqo'te were some of the biggest requests/complaints. Gender locked races just does nothing but create demand for the other gender.

Is there some kind of stone tablet at SE headquarters which is engraved with the commandment "thou shalt not make male Viera" and if anyone tries they get immolated like they opened the ark of the covenant? Refusing to put them in for lore reasons is a really lame excuse when male miqo'te have those same reasons and they went ahead and made them playable anyway, and people are happy about it. I want to know the reasoning here. At least be forthcoming about your decisions.

I have no personal interest in playing a male Viera, but I do love this game, and I want to see the dev team make the right decisions. Whenever they pull stuff like this that just fosters resentment and distrust, it upsets me, because I know they could have done better and made people happy but they chose not to. Between this and the whole limited job thing it's getting harder to have faith that this team can make the good decisions that they know people want.

[Beckett]

Not even acknowledging it at the art panel seems like a mistake. Surely they know everyone's asking.

If they're trying to build up hype, it's causing more negative than positive press in the meantime.

And if they're not including males, the extended wait is only going to make the backlash worse.

If the Lion race thing is real and is male-only, it's going to need to absolutely blow people out of the water with how amazing it is if SE wants to stand any chance of avoiding the backlash of female-only Viera.

Given that the Lion race is something no one asked for, and male Viera is something that people have been looking forward to for years, I don't think it's remotely possible for Lion race hype to outweigh Viera disappointment.

[Senliten]

Tokyo Fan Fest will have Male Viera info

Now can we put the pitchforks down until After Tokyo fan fest?

In a press conference, Yoshida was asked whether this was going to continue to be the case or whether male Viera would be coming with the 5.0 update to the popular MMO. However, he refused to comment on this matter, teasing that this would be revealed at the Tokyo Fan Fest on March 23rd-24th 2019 (he even did a motion zipping his mouth).

[Shougun]

I'm going to be upset when ronso gets announced instead. Why do we get sexy women for all the straight guys to fawn over but no males equivalent?

Not that I want there to be no viera Male, but if it was either Male viera or Ronso Male and no other choice... I'd have to go ronso, just out of personal desire. But I'd much rather prefer everyone wins.

[Senn]

I'm really excited to see the other version of viera. If we really are getting two versions (a tall and small version) I'm gonna be so happy.
Since we haven't seen this other version of viera, I think they're holding off on showing male veira (if there are playable male viera) for now.

[ElazulHP]

Tokyo Fan Fest will have Male Viera info

Now can we put the pitchforks down until After Tokyo fan fest?

If the Blufever leaker holds true, and he's been right so far, it's going to be male only Ronso. Odds of that being what is revealed in Tokyo over male Viera is much more likely imo.

[xbahax92]

Tokyo Fan Fest will have Male Viera info

Now can we put the pitchforks down until After Tokyo fan fest?

It doesnt mean anything though. It still implies some sort of "maybe, maybe not". This doesnt help at all.

edit: Also, he had the chance to confirm or deny that they exist. I dont understand why its necessary to keep it top secret. He would still have a reason to hold onto it for JP FanFest, cause no one will know how they will end up looking ingame&artwork.
Instead they keep the player base with an unsettling feeling and cause rather frustration instead of hype.

[PangTong]

Tokyo Fan Fest will have Male Viera info

Now can we put the pitchforks down until After Tokyo fan fest?

This isn't an explicit male Viera confirmation but it does at least suggest they have something else up their sleeve. They can avoid the worst-case scenario of only having a single race that's gender-locked, but if it's just another gender-locked race instead of male Viera I think they'll be making the wrong decision.

[Beckett]

It just seems a bit silly you know? A race reveal is generally something highly anticipated that will boost sales.
So why reveal a new race 4 days before pre-orders open but only reveal the females? Why make literally no mention of male Viera in your race reveal video and your art panel where you had a segment about the new race?

Why dance around this issue 4 days before pre-orders open? Because Square wants to keep something to reveal for the Tokyo Fanfest? Do they really have this little content that they need to keep the reveal of a race's GENDER for an entirely different fanfest?

Saving this. There is absolutely no logical reason for them to delay the announcement of male Viera, so the "best" case scenario is that they're just woefully incompetent.

[DarkDedede]

Perhaps the dev team couldn't get funding for both genders of a new race, and Yoshi P was hoping that the backlash and demand would be enough to convince those holding onto the purse strings to fund the rest of the development.