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Ubisoft removes homophobic street art from The Division 2

Ubisoft has removed street art from The Division 2 that some may take offense to and has issued an apology.

Brittany Vincent
Brittany Vincent
6

Ubisoft has removed a piece of street art from The Division 2's open world after fans stumbled upon an image that featured a homophobic slur.

The image depicted a security guard eating a donut with a badge that read "FA6607" in leet-speak. It's an obvious homage to punk rock Black Flag's "Police Story" promotional song artwork, but there is no in-game context to explain this, potentially leading to why people have speculated that it is a homophobic slur there for the sake of being there. Black Flag's image was controversial as well with added text in addition to the word.

The Division 2 image in question.
The Division 2 image in question.

Ubisoft issued an apology for the image and noted in a statement via PC Gamer that the image has been pulled as of a patch on Thursday, April 11.

"We removed the image from the game via a patch on Thursday, April 11," read the statement. "We apologize that this image slipped through our content review processes, and we are currently reviewing them in order to avoid this kind of oversight from occurring in the future."

The Division 2 is a very popular title right now, and fans are eating up its open-world vibe. Our own Josh Hawkins reviewed the game and awarded it an 8 out of 10.

"Sure, The Division 2 isn’t perfect," he wrote. "Those hoping for an in-depth and engaging story will find themselves extremely disappointed in the meager offering on hand here. But, if you can overlook that, you’ll find an amazing experience beneath that is just teeming with engaging content. Considering how easy it is to sink 60+ hours into the game and still have activities to complete, I’m confident in saying that Massive Entertainment has earned themselves a giant gold star."

Stay tuned to Shacknews for additional updates.

Senior Editor
Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!

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  • Shacknews legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
    reply
    April 12, 2019 9:15 AM

    Brittany Vincent posted a new article, Ubisoft removes homophobic street art from The Division 2

    • Tripps legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury super mega
      reply
      April 12, 2019 9:19 AM

      At first glance I didn't see anything wrong with it, and then I looked at the highlight. Yeah, someone screwed up bad there. It's good they removed it. Honestly, and I've put 80+ hours into the game so far, I don't even recall seeing that in the game.

    • jet-poop legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
      reply
      April 12, 2019 11:50 AM

      The art in question seems to be an homage (or a straight up rip, the cop's face appears to be identical) of Raymond Pettibon's promotional art for Black Flag's Police Story - art which happens to contain the same slur. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Black_Flag_Police_Story_sticker.jpg

      I don't know how stuff like this is handled nowadays, but my impression is that for a game of this type of budget, from a company like Ubisoft, graffiti is probably farmed out to an asset factory in Asia somewhere. Should have been caught in review, even if that's the case.

    • deathofrats legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      April 12, 2019 4:35 PM

      If i may offer a small critique: "It's an obvious homage to punk rock Black Flag's...". it wasn't obvious to everyone, I'm glad someone pointed out the original, I never seen it before. Saying it was obvious makes it seem the readers are dumb for not 'getting' it

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