"The Last of Us" has been a smash hit for developer Naughty Dog, but the game continues to cause problems for the developer after the game launched earlier this month.
Ellen Page, the Oscar-nominated actress, stated that she felt Naughty Dog "ripped off" her image to create the character Ellie, then an artist forced the studio to apologies for including his copyrighted map of the Boston subway system into the game. Now, a new embarrassment has surfaced for the company, as now it has come to light that the game includes a real-life sex hotline's number as part of the game's background.
Kotaku is reporting that this goof was brought to life when users started calling the number, assuming it would be one of the many Easter eggs included in the game. The numbers can be seen on a bulletin board in the game's Pittsburg level. Neil Druckmann, the creative director for the game, had this to say about the snafu:
"That was an artist's mistake...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. We're now working to take it out...It was just an honest mistake," Druckmann said.
Despite all these mistakes and stories about "The Last of Us," the game continues to be a critical and commercial success for Naughty Dog. The PlayStation 3 exclusive has top sales charts the world over, and the game has garnered praise for having a moving story and tension filled atmosphere. While these mistakes by Naughty Dog could backfire eventually, the game show no signs of shrinking in popularity, and even this sex hotline mistake should barely put a dent in the game's stellar reputation.