Dead Island: Feminist Whore was "bad joke during crunch"
Following last week's controversial events surrounding the discovery of leftover code in the PC version of Dead Island regarding a skill called Feminist Whore, Techland has told VG247 its inclusion just merely a "bad joke" whilst the company was in crunch for the survival horror.
The code was discovered in a dev build of the PC version that was accidentally released onto Steam. A patch was later issued to fix the game, but by the time Feminist Whore was discovered, the damage was done.
"It was indeed a case of a bad joke during crunch time," Techland International brand manager Blazej Krakowiak told VG247 in an email this afternoon.
"About the inappropriate name in a piece of game code: It was indeed a case of a bad joke during crunch time. It was never, ever a part of the game in any visible way. The skill name in question was just a code 'handle' for another in-game skill for a short while.
"During cleanup, one reference to it was missed, the diagnostic/debug file uncovered by one of the users."
Regardless, Techland has made clear that this should never have happened.
"It still shouldn't have happened and the person responsible is very much aware of that fact," said Krakowiak.
He added to us that the person behind the situation is still at the company, although said Techland "don't expect to make any further updates" on any further decisions "which may be made internally" regarding the staffer's future.
Techland happy with UK success
Controversy aside, Techland and the game's publisher Deep Silver scored a huge number one in the UK charts with Dead Island this morning. It's something that pleases the Polish company greatly.
"UK is obviously one of the most important markets for our games and we're very happy to see Dead Island at the top of the charts," added Krakowiak.
When asked about sales or shipment numbers in its first week, Krakowiak couldn't comment on the figures, instead pointing us towards Deep Silver. We're following with them now.