Uh huh, the words “phone sex” and “accident” together in one sentence, I believe you… Sure. Apparently Naughty Dog’s immersive and realistic The Last of Us got a little too realistic when a mistake resulted in some fake in-game phone numbers being linked to actual real-world phone numbers.
Kids these days!
On a fake pest control poster within the post apocalyptic game, two phone numbers are listed. The numbers, 800-555-2545 and 800-555-6784 if you’re curious, belong to two phone sex hotlines. Feel like checking it out for yourself? Well, I guess you can if you really want to. For the sake of journalistic integrity (I swear) I had to fact-check this. Here’s a transcript from the introduction of 6784, it’s no joke:
“Welcome to America’s hottest talk line! Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free, press one now! Guys, hot ladies are waiting to…”
And that’s where I hung up. I’m really hoping that doesn’t show up on my phone bill. The things I do for a story…(grumble, grumble).
There is a SoundCloud clip of the other hotline, which was too explicit to transcribe. This comes with a BIG DISCLAIMER: the following is explicit, definitely NSFW, will probably make you feel a bit skeevy (or giggle), and will autoplay when you click the link. That out of the way, for the truly curious you can listen to it HERE.
The live numbers, Creative Director Neil Druckman told Kotaku, was a honest mistake on the artists’ part:
“What happened was, they put some phone numbers in the game and then they thought they could just change the area code to 555, then it’s invalid because it’s what they do in movies. But I guess that doesn’t work when you have a 1-800 in front of it.”
The developers are currently working to remedy the situation, but nothing has been done yet.
Naughty Dog, Naughty, Naughty!
The Last of Us has been lauded for the hyper-realism and immersive story, but Naughty Dog has been getting into a bit of trouble for doing a little too good of a job. The game has recently been criticized for nearly stealing Ellen Page’s likeness for a main character (named Ellie, no less), as well as using a map of the Boston Transit System without necessary permissions.
Other easter eggs in The Last of Us include a reference to Uncharted 13, Justin Beiber’s possible role in the apocalypse, even a little Sack-Boy rip-off doll. The game is still fresh and I’m sure there are plenty more easter eggs yet to be found in the zombie-fungus filled wasteland.
If you find a cool easter egg you should definitely make a post about it here on GameSkinny!
