Sony says it will remove Stellar Blade artwork that appears to reference racial slurs, claiming the inclusion of the phrase was “inadvertent.”
The art, which appears to combine two visual elements into one statement, was discovered during the review process. It can be seen in the screenshot below.
In Stellar Blade, “R Shop” refers to Roxanne, one of the game's information brokers. Meanwhile, “hard” graffiti can be found in numerous areas throughout the game. In a statement issued to IGN, PlayStation said developer Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork, and promised to remove it as part of the day one patch for Stellar Blade.
“Placing two images too close to each other in Stellar Blade resulted in an unintended objectionable statement,” PlayStation said in a statement. “Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork and will replace graffiti in the day one patch.”
While Shift Up is the developer of Stellar Blade, Sony Interactive Entertainment serves as its publisher. IGN asked Sony if there were any plans to remove the art from the disc as well, and a PlayStation representative reiterated that it “should be removed for all users in the day one update.”
Stellar Blade is scheduled to be released on April 26 on PlayStation 5. You can read our full review here.
Kat Bailey is IGN's news director and co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Do you have any advice? Send her a direct message at @the_katbot.
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