Stellar Blade ‘Hard R’ controversy, explained

Stellar Blade‘s Hard R controversy caused a backlash from players, leading to developer Shift Up fixing the blunder almost immediately, but let’s look at what caused the problem in the first place.

With tons of great reviews under Stellar Blade‘s belt and a ton of interest in the PS5 exclusive, everything has been smooth sailing so far. Even with eyebrows raised at Eve’s Skin Suit—and her other outfits—Stellar Blade‘s intense experience is appealing to many.

Stepping away from the game’s core for a second, though, we need to address the Hard R controversy, which is yet another discourse Stellar Blade has been swept up in.

What is the Hard R controversy in Stellar Blade?

The Hard R controversy in Stellar Blade refers to an unintentional racial slur openly visible in the game’s world before developer Shift Up patched it out in response to the understandably negative feedback.

A shop in Stellar Blade‘s city of Xion—the home of Deluxe Edition rewards and the map unlock—is called the “R Shop.” Pre-patch, to the left of the shop’s logo, was a big section of graffiti that said “HARD,” meaning, it said “HARD R.”

In slang, HARD R is another way of saying the “N-Word,” and it’s unclear if this was an accident or a translational faux pas on the Korean developer’s part.

Whichever reason was the cause, it’s believed there was no malice or ill-intention involved, which is why Shift Up has had no problem patching it out. Sony had this to say to IGN, “The placement of two graphics near each other in Stellar Blade resulted in an unintentional objectionable phrase. Shift Up had no intention of creating offensive artwork and will be replacing the graffiti for the Day 1 patch.”

The graffiti now says something completely different, and all traces of the mistake have been removed—so credit to Shift Up for acting so quickly.