Publishers don't know what will work. They only know what has worked. They've also become "too big for their britches." They need to make a ridiculous number of sales in order to cover the absurd cost of running their massive corporations, so they don't want to invest in anything that hasn't recently been proven to work. This behavior is causing their games to become stagnant, which is actually hurting their business.
This this this this this. We keep seeing the same old garbage because that stuff worked in the past. It's not "would having a gay black female protagonist sell more copies or less?" It's "has anyone ever made a game with a gay black female protagonist that sold at least as many copies as a white male one? No? Then we're not going to be the first to try it."
Whereas if the big AAA companies heard from the gaming community, including the white male demographic, that yes, we would buy a game like that, and in fact we want it, then they will be willing to make it. But this is not a situation where you can "vote with your wallet." Your wallet can only vote for games that have already been made. If we want something actually new, then we need to tell them. That's where discussions like this come in. If enough people are talking about it and saying loudly that they want more diverse characters, eventually this will catch the attention of someone in the AAA industry and things can start to change.
This is why it's not enough to say "things are slowly changing, so we don't need to do anything." As others have said, things have only changed as much as they have because people demanded it. Progress will grind to a halt or even start going backwards if people just shrug their shoulders and walk away.
And it seems this has mostly been covered while I was sleeping, but just to emphasize:
I'm not demanding GAMES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. I'm not demanding GAMES FOR GAY PEOPLE. I'm not demanding that every game ever must be completely representative of the entire spectrum of human beings. That would be ridiculous. I have no problem whatsoever with many games being just chock full of white guys.
All I'm asking for is that when a company makes a game, they give AT LEAST AS MUCH consideration to making the lead female as male. That they treat the female characters they include as complex human beings with a personality that isn't centered around appearance or a man (which means consulting REAL LIVE WOMEN when designing the characters). I want to see a gay character in a game every once in a while, and I absolutely do NOT want the game to be about a character being gay. I want to see more non-white characters in games who are just there, not stereotypes, not criminals, not enemies, just people. That's the whole point. I don't really want to play a game that is "targeted for the black demographic" or the "gay demographic." I want there to be these characters in the games and for it to not be a big deal. It shouldn't be a big deal for there to be a lesbian in the game. Or even for the main character to be one. It shouldn't be a big deal to have a female character who's just there to kick ass and take names without highlighting her gravity-defying breasts or tragic backstory.
The world is not full of white guys. Even the gaming community is not full of white guys. So why do the games have to be? It's like the Lord of the Rings thing, where they told the Indian girl she was too brown to be a hobbit. Our game worlds are full of orcs, goblins, elves, dwarfs, robots, aliens, monsters, superheroes, supervillains, evolving bacteria, sentient elements, and talking abstractions. No one should be raising an eyebrow at a black lesbian in there somewhere. Or a transgender character whose story is not about being transgender. Or a playable Arab protagonist who is a practicing Muslim and follows the actual teachings of that religion (peace, love, understanding, equality, and not forcing your views on others) strictly even while progressing throughout the story.
These things don't need to be highlighted or focused on. They just need to be THERE.