The Last Of Us Dev Promises to Remove Phone Sex Numbers

[Andy Chalk]

The Last Of Us Dev Promises to Remove Phone Sex Numbers

Creative Director Neil Druckmann says the inclusion of real phone sex numbers in The Last Of Us was "an honest mistake."

Look closely at the right bulletin boards in The Last Of Us and you'll notice among the posts an ad for "ABC Quality Pest Control," with two separate 800 numbers you can call to "make your home free from pests." But if you do happen to call them, which some people obviously did, what you'll actually end up connected to is a phone sex line.

"That was an artist's mistake," Druckmann told Kotaku. "What happened was, they put some phone numbers in the game and then they thought they could just change the area code to 555, then it's invalid because it's what they do in movies. But I guess that doesn't work when you have a 1-800 in front of it."

Druckmann said Naughty Dog will remove the sexy hotlines, although I'm not really clear on why it should. The Last Of Us is what I call a very M-rated [http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=32916&Title=The%20Last%20of%20Us] game, with "blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes and strong language" all on the ESRB content descriptor menu, and television advertisements depict (or at least strongly suggest) Joel, the hero, offing an injured guy with a rusty machete. In light of all that, is the presence of a phone sex number really that much of an issue?

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/the-last-of-us-hidden-phone-sex-numbers-a-mistake-w-586902643]


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[MrPeanut]

This game just can't get enough it seems

 

[Zombie Izzard]

Okay honestly who calls numbers from video games? Unless it's who framed roger rabbit. Just seems like a big waste of time.

 

[linkmastr001]

Huh, I too thought all numbers with 555 in the middle were always fake.

The more you know...

 

[lacktheknack]

Man, all these tiny blunders.

I'm reminded of a politician who arrived at his hotel and tried to call a government office, but used the 1-800 prefix instead of the official one. The resulting number was a sex line, which got really awkward when a rival candidate got a hold of it (even though the interception showed that he hung up ten seconds after dialing) (too unbothered to find source).

It makes me wonder just how many sex lines there are out there...

 

[erbkaiser]

Seems like with this latest boner for Quality Pest Control, Naughty Dog could have used some better Quality Control.

 

[Mufujumon]

I'd assume the reason they want to remove it ASAP isn't because "sex in video games oh noes" but rather, they don't want to be seen as endorsing the sex industry or advertise for it.

 

[Slycne]

Okay honestly who calls numbers from video games? Unless it's who framed roger rabbit. Just seems like a big waste of time.

I could easily see someone thinking that some kind of Easter Egg voice mail would be found by calling it. Developers love to put that kind of stuff in games.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

This a legitimately hilarious mistake

 

[luvd1]

For fek sake. I despair about the state of humanity some times. Why phone a number in a game? Seriously! Who?

 

[Krantos]

To be honest... I'm a little suspicious... Are they BOTH phone sex lines? If so, what are the odds that two random 800 numbers are actually sex lines?

Now I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying.

 

[Dogstile]

Okay honestly who calls numbers from video games? Unless it's who framed roger rabbit. Just seems like a big waste of time.

God of war had a secret phone number in it that if you called it, you heard Kratos kill David Jaffe or however you spell his name.

 

[Pyrian]

...what are the odds that two random 800 numbers are actually sex lines?

Startlingly high, I imagine.

 

[Robot Number V]

I'm totally gonna copy what one of the Facebook comments for the article said:

"Dev Promises to Remove Phone Hidden Sex Numbers"

This title sound right not it does.

 

[Schadrach]

It has outright amazed me the number of tiny controversies that have hit The Last of Us without a huge stink being made over the strongly implied attempted rape in the game. It's like whoever lights fires under the asses of people who start those controversies doesn't actually play games, and since it wasn't used in any of the advertising, no one has noticed.

 

[Klonoa Prower]

I could have sworn that sex lines and telemarketers were usually under 900 ACs, and 800s were reserved for business... but I could be wrong. Anyway, the issue is really the fact that there's no prior warning as to what you're calling, so it really should be changed. Though, in my opinion, it should be changed to a sexy poster that says the numbers are to a sex hotline... that's just me though.

 

[mechalynx]

Welp, looks like I won't be downloading any patches for this game.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I think what we've learned from The Last of Us is that video games have reached the point where they're TOO realistic. People have their likenesses stolen, maps stolen, and phone sex hotlines advertised, all unintentionally. Next thing you know, someone's apartment is going to get broken into because some video game used their building's ventilation system.

 

[KeyMaster45]

In light of all that, is the presence of a phone sex number really that much of an issue?

Was the accidental inclusion of some dead code that lead to a sex scene in San Andreas enough for the media to lose its shit when an 8 year old figured out how to access the scene? It's just going to take one stupid kid, in a family where the parents bought the game despite the M rating, to phone up that number and we'll have another media shit-storm on our hands.

We've been dealing with the fallout from Sandy Hook for months now, do we really want to give them more anecdotal ammunition to misrepresent?