The perpetually triggered woke IGN and Kotaku game journalists were desperately scouring for their fainting couches as they allegedly stumbled upon a large graffiti piece in Stellar Blade reading ‘Hard’ beside a glowing neon ‘R’ sign. This signpost, guiding players to an NPC meetup with Roxanne, left them in a tizzy, claiming that it is a nod to the ‘Hard R’ version of the word n*gg*r. But Sony has already made a statement and said it will be removed with a day 1 patch, which overrides the developer Shift Up who initial statement that Stellar Blade would be released uncensored in all countries. The timing of events following upon the first public disclosure of the Hard R raises the question whether there was collusion between IGN, Kotaku, Sony and possibly a Twitch streamer to create controversy and manufactured outrage over Stellar Blade.
Game developer Mark Kern (Grummz) also raised the question and posted on X: “Stellar Blade “Hard R” controversy was MANUFACTURED as a coordinated attack? @IGN and @Kotaku respond ready with articles , including Sony official responses exactly the moment the screen shot was posted by YouTuber @manfightdragon. Impossible for news to get comment and response from Sony in such short time. This had to have been collusion designed to be posted instant embargo lifted to create fake news and controversy. @Lyde15 dives in and discovers timestamps.”
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A screenshot of the Hard R was shared by X user Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) at 3pm April 24, which by all indications are the first instance of the Hard R controversy been made public. At the exact same time, 3pm April IGN put up an article on the Stellar Blade Hard R controversy, in which article IGN states that it had already reached out to Sony and Sony had already released a statement! Less than half an hour later Kotaku also published a hit piece on the Hard R controversy.
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Sony’s statement read: “The placement of two graphics near each other in Stellar Blade resulted in an unintentional objectionable phrase, Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork and will be replacing the graffiti for the Day 1 patch.”
It appears that the Hard R has already been replaced with graffiti reading “CRIME.” Rather apt, Sony forcing the developer Shift Up to change Stellar Blade art to appease a few fragile game journalists.
Reaching out to and receiving a statement from Sony must have happened BEFORE the Hard R controversy went public. This is not a good look and raises the question whether Sony, IGN, Kotaku and possibly a Twitch streamer were colluding to create controversy over supposed racist art in Stellar blade.
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