When Sony revealed the new trailer for The Last of Us Part II at Paris Games Week 2017, it instantly became criticized by many due to its use of domestic child abuse, and a woman being hit with a hammer. When interviewed by Telegraph, President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, Jim Ryan, defended the company’s decision by stating..
“The Last of Us obviously is a game made by adults to be played by adults. I should never prejudge this but it will probably be rated 18, I think it’s fair to say. And there’s that market for those people who like that sort of game. Adults who like that sort of game. And I think we cater for that, and at the other end of the spectrum there was Concrete Genie, which my eight-year-old decided was the game she would like to play very much.
“I think a platform holder provides a platform and the people who make games, whether they’re our own studios or third-party publishers, they bring the content to the platform. We provide the platform. We have to ensure the right content is played by the right people – of appropriate ages in particular. I thought The Last of Us Part 2 was a great way to end the show and I feel very good about it.”
When asked why the trailer did not go into much context. Ryan explained..
“I think what we’re trying to do is to portray qualities of the various games we had on show. And I think it is difficult when you have a clip of four or five minutes to synthesise a gameplay experience that can be measured in the tens of hours.
“And, again, the studio was seeking to portray a game that will be rated as suitable for adults to play and that’s what we did.”
