“Last of Us”: another wake-up call for the Gaming Industry

Beyond LGBTQ+ inclusion in media, tackling the video gaming space

Two weeks ago, LGBTQ+ people everywhere celebrated the latest episode of HBO's 'Last of Us' – based on the video game of the same name - featuring a sensible and emotional post-apocalyptic gay love story. This took place on the heels of Electronic Arts announcing a significant update to The Sims 4 last week that includes some ground-breaking transgender-inclusive options. Many outlets picked up on both developments as progress on gay representation in video games. Queerness in gaming is nothing new, but it is becoming more mainstream.

Yet, within a few days, the “Last of Us” episode was review-bombed by angry gamers. Business Insider reported that on sites like review aggregator Metacritic, it has a user score of 4.8 out of 10 when the first two episodes received 8.7 and 8.6 user scores, respectively.