14 DAY TRIAL // Square Enix, the publisher of the recent Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game has published an official statement concerning the racist portrayal of an African-American woman in the video game developed by Eidos Montreal.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution gained almost universal acclaim for living up to the high standards imposed by the original title, and impressed legions of gamers all around the world.
Sadly, there are a few faults within the game, some addressed by Softpedia in our ongoing Deus Ex gamer diary series.
While we talked about level design, other people have found a particular non-playable character to be truly offensive, and its portrayal downright racist.
The character in question, Letitia the Trash Lady, is an African-American woman found by the protagonist, Adam Jensen, foraging through trash cans in Detroit. While that's not so bad, as other NPCs also engage in this action, accusers say that her tone, speaking in an accent familiar to slave-era characters, is downright racist.
Square Enix has responded to these claims, trying to highlight that the futuristic world in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a different one from our reality, and it tried to not discriminate against any ethnic group.
"Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fictional story which reflects the diversity of the world's future population by featuring characters of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds," said Square Enix to GamesRadar.
"While these characters are meant to portray people living in the year 2027, it has never been our intention to represent any particular ethnic group in a negative light."
You can check out the actual conversation with Letitia the Trash Lady in the video below and then judge for yourself if you think her portrayal is racist or just a small mistake from the teams at Square Enix or Eidos Montreal. Leave your own thoughts in a comment below.