For Honor is a medieval hand-to-hand combat game Ubisoft released earlier this year. In it, you play as a grizzled fighter who uses weapons to impale and dismember opponents on the battlefield.
The combat is tense, gory, and humorless—so it was a little strange last month when a new execution animation included a bit of accidental boob grabbing. In a patch released Friday, the company updated the fondling scene to a more PG version.
The boobs belonged to Valkyrie, a female Viking who fights using a spear and shield. In the animation released last month, called “No Touching,” a doomed fighter stumbles forward and puts his hands on Valkyrie’s chest by mistake. He then lifts his hands and shakes his head by way of apology — before she kicks him in the groin and smashes his head with her fist.
It’s a lively scene that might have played better in a more lighthearted game. But For Honor is about as lighthearted as the bubonic plague. Shortly after releasing the animation last month, Ubisoft removed it from the game and refunded money to anyone who had bought it. (Some fans complained about censorship, which is no surprise in today’s powder-keg gaming environment.)
In the new patch, Ubisoft brought the “No Touching” animation back. Only this time, the opponent’s hands fall on Valkyrie’s shield rather than her breasts. Otherwise, the animation remains pretty much the same.
Once again, the For Honor subreddit has erupted with comments about the irony of a game including brutal graphic violence but shying away from accidental groping.
According to Ubisoft’s patch notes about the update, the new animation is the result of a “bug fix.” That obviously isn’t entirely true, based on the tweaks made to the animation. Speaking with Kotaku, an Ubisoft representative said the original animation “included an inappropriate gesture between the Valkyrie and her opponent. We felt it was insensitive content and thus changed the execution.”
The spokesperson said it was released last month by mistake, which is why Ubisoft pulled it from the game so quickly. The company said it has since added measures to its workflow to make sure no similar mistakes happen in the future.
