Female Game Testers Ignored for "The Last of Us"

Finally, game developers have realized women play video games.  Naughty Dog admitted they forgot to conduct marketing research from female gamers for their new game The Last of Us for Playstation 3.

In an interview with The Escapist, Neil Druckman revealed The Last of Us for catered to target the male audience. Druckman stated "my big surprise during this process [was] that the research group wasn't planning on focus testing female gamers- it's something we had to specifically request.  I hope this is a relic of the past that will soon go away."

The oversight came not from the studio creating the game, but rather from a seemingly "girls don't play video games" attitude from an unnamed research firm given the job of managing focus testing during development.

Druckman said, " another aspect that influences how a game is promoted is focus testing. Players are rounded up and asked to view materials and answer some quantitative and qualitative questions about it."

In the article marketing suggested moving pictures of Ellie, the co-main character, to the back of the game box.  Naughty Dog paid no attention to marketing and chose to keep Ellie along side her co-main character Joel.

The shipping date was delayed to fix bias oversights that may have happened as a result of the actions taken earlier. The Last of Us will be released June 14, 2013.  A playable demo will be available to those who purchase God of War: Ascension.