Sony Removing Stellar Blade’s Unintentional N-Word Reference

A juxtaposition of environmental elements that, taken together, can be interpreted as an allusion to the n-word will be removed from sci-fi action game Stellear Blade in a day one patch, Sony confirmed today. The company told IGN the offensive reference was “unintentional.”

The word “hard” in pink spray paint appears in graffiti throughout Stellar Blade. IGN reports that in one location, it appears next to a neon sign for “R shop,” where the protagonist Eve meets with a handler named Roxanne. Taken together, the text players see on the wall reads “Hard R Shop,” a seeming joke about racial slurs.

“The placement of two graphics near each other in Stellar Blade resulted in an unintentional objectionable phrase,” Sony told IGN in a statement. “Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork and will be replacing the graffiti for the Day 1 patch.”

The reference appears to have already been removed from the game. This morning when Kotaku staff writer Claire Jackson went to revisit Roxanne’s shop, new blue graffiti reading “crime” had been swapped in. Sony didn’t clarify whether this change will be implemented in later disc printings of the game, or only be patched out via download.

It’s not unusual for offensive imagery and references to make their way into finished games. In 2017, Bungie patched out an alt-right symbol derived from Nazi imagery from Destiny 2. In 2018, Nintendo removed an offensive Mr. Game & Watch animation from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A noose spray was taken out of Overwatch in 2020.

Stellar Blade launches on April 26 as a PS5 exclusive and has already been seized on by some players as an “antidote to woke Western games,” namely because the main character has a large butt and big boobs. I’m sure this latest news will be treated completely normally.