Homophobia Didn’t Negatively Impact “The Last of Us – Part 2” PlayStation Pre-Orders

In some good news during Pride 2020, it has been shared by PlayStation boss Jim Ryan that the spoiler-heavy leaks for the upcoming The Last of Us 2 game didn’t negatively impact pre-orders. Homophobes and man-babies can continue to cry, of course.

This article contains minor spoilers for The Last of Us – Part 2. You have been warned.

Back in April of this year, I wrote a post about the plot details for The Last of Us 2 leaking online. Now, while I could understand where the fandom’s frustration was coming from (there was some very drastic stuff in the leaks), I wasn’t a fan of the blatant homophobia being involved in the criticism.

Not liking a piece of content because you have an issue with how your favorite characters were handled is different from not liking something because it has queer people in it.

Naughty Dog, the developer, did what they could to do some damage control and assured fans that the details in the leaks were taken out of context. However, persistent homophobia still continued. Apparently, a vocal group of people still doesn’t like playing games with a queer lead or a title that has more than one fictional queer person existing in it.

Anyway, Jim Ryan, during an interview with CNET, shared that while the leaks were unfortunate, the situation had a limited overall effect on pre-orders. Ryan said Sony has, “tallied more preorders in Europe for The Last of Us Part 2 than it did for Marvel’s Spider-Man at the same point before its launch.”

But, of course, that won’t please the “get woke, go broke” crowd. Whenever a property they don’t like (because they consider it to be “woke”) succeeds, such people conveniently move the goalpost. Such people still don’t think Captain Marvel was a box office success (even after making more than $1 billion). The same goes for the recent main Star Wars movies.

They will surely come up with something petty to say if The Last of Us 2 does well. 

And frankly, I still don’t understand their definition of “woke”… like, what the heck does getting “woke” even mean? Is acknowledging that queer people exist in fiction considered being woke? Are you woke if you think that fiction should have women as superheroes?

It’s a mess and I think the definition changes whenever it’s convenient to push a negative narrative.

Anyway, I’m going to address people who have valid concerns about the details in the leaks. I understand where you’re coming from. As someone who enjoyed the first installment, even I was shocked when I read the spoilers for the sequel. I also have concerns about the game quite possibly putting too much on a (possible) transwoman playing a role in the main narrative.

But, at the end of the day, none of us have played the game yet. So, I can’t make myself blast Naughty Dog for queer representation over leaked spoilers. However, if after we have all played the title and I feel like the queer representation was lacking, then yes, I will definitely share my opinions.

Until then, if you were excited about The Last of Us sequel but were worried about the negative uproar online… well, according to Sony, you don’t have anything to worry about.

Also, I have to mention that the upcoming title will be offering a range of accessibility options to make it playable for more people. Good of Naughty Dog to make changes for the better and to help make gaming comfortable for different types of players.

Are you looking forward to playing The Last of Us 2 when it comes out on June 19, 2020?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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