Zombies in the Back 4 Blood Beta Accidentally Say a Racial Slur

Back 4 Blood may be a work of fiction. But the games recent beta test got a little too real after some of the zombies appeared to be saying a racial slur at the player.

Last weekend, Turtle Rock Studios held a limited time public beta for their upcoming co-op zombie shooter, Back 4 Blood. This was an excellent opportunity to both give the public a sneak peek at what to expect when the game releases later this month, as well as find some bugs or other issues to resolve. Well, there was certainly one issue: zombies were sometimes saying the N-word.

It wasnt a crystal clear pronunciation, sounding more akin to the guttural shrieks zombies are known for, but it definitely sounded distinct enough to cause plenty of players to turn their heads in surprise. While not super common, the instance was frequent enough to garner some traction online, with various users sharing clips of the instance. Twitter users @HomBKE and @DotoDoya provided two perfect examples.

Yea, we can hear it.

So whats going on? Its hard to imagine that the development team would willingly put an audio file like that into the game. How would such a thing get past quality assurance, anyway? Fortunately, Kotaku found the answer. Turtle Rock provided a statement to the media outlet, explaining that the sound is an accidental combination of two separate audio files playing at the same time.

Our team has been made aware of offensive language that can be heard when playing the game. This was not recorded or ever intended to be part of our gameplay. The audio is a result of two different Ridden growls that are playing simultaneously and when heard together sound like that word. We are working diligently to fix this issue, which should be completed either in time for the Beta, or when the game launches.

When you think about zombie sounds, it makes sense that all of the pieces of the slur might appear separately. So we can understand why it might sound this way when overlapped. Its fortunate that this was just an accident (or a good enough lie, if not) and that the audio will be resolved before the games official launch. Even so, thats a touch embarrassing.

Either way, Back 4 Blood will release on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on October 21, 2021, presumably with less offensive remarks.