Warner Bros says Back 4 Blood racial slur was “unintentional”

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  Zombie-killing with friends: You've done this before, but Back 4 Blood makes a strong case for its version feeling surprisingly fresh. [credit: Turtle Rock / WB Games ]

A number of players taking part in the recent beta test for co-op zombie shooter Back 4 Blood were shocked to hear the undead hordes screaming what seemed to be a racial slur as they shambled forward. Now, publisher WB Games says it is working to fix an audio phenomenon it says was an "unintended" result of two separate sound files mixing during gameplay.

These zombies a different breed pic.twitter.com/1GMXlsSYse

- Da Homma (@HomBKE) August 6, 2021

Twitter user HomBKE was among the first to publicize video of Back 4 Blood's undead "Ridden" groaning what sounds a lot like the n-word shortly after the game's closed beta launch on Friday ("What did you call me?" he responds incredulously in the clip). User Dotodoya responded with a similar clip. Kotaku's Zack Zweizen also reported hearing the audio over the weekend, a situation he described as "100% likely unintentional but also 100% unfortunate."

Since then, WB Games has confirmed that supposition in a statement provided to media outlets:

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