Stellar Blade Day One Update Will Remove Unintentional Racial Slur Reference

Sony will remove a piece of in-game graffiti in Stellar Blade that created an unintentional reference to a racial slur, and the fix will come in a day-one patch.

Spotted by IGN, there's a shop in Stellar Blade called the "R Shop" owned by the character Roxanne and its sign is placed next to the word "hard" in graffiti. When placed together, the two separate phrases seem to accidentally form a reference to the racial slur.

"The placement of two graphics near each other in Stellar Blade resulted in an unintentionally objectionable phrase," PlayStation said in a statement. "Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork and will be replacing the graffiti for the Day 1 patch."

IGN also asked PlayStation if future prints of physical copies for the game will include the patch. PlayStation reiterated that the issue will be addressed in the day-one patch. However, it looks like the issue has already been patched out, with the word "hard" replaced with "crime."

This isn't the first time that unintentional racism occurred in a game. Back in 2021, Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios addressed an issue during the game's open beta of zombies saying what sounded like a racial slur, especially when multiple zombies were saying the line at once. The developer fixed the problem prior to the game launching.

Stellar Blade launches on April 26, exclusively on PS5. In GameSpot's Stellar Blade review, we said, "A strong battle system and exciting moments make Stellar Blade more than just an imitator."