The Last of Us focus test used men only, dev forced them to include women

The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog has revealed that the focus-testing group handling surveys for the PS3 title were only planning on speaking with male gamers. Creative director Neil Druckman has revealed that the studio stepped in and forced them to include female gamers as well.

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

"My big surprise during this process is 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."

Naughty Dog told me last year that Sony asked them to push Ellie to the back of the game's box-art for fear of her image hurting sales. They refused. Find out what happened here.

Thanks GI.biz.