What an interesting day and age we live in. Recently some nude screenshots of Ellen Page from the game Beyond Two Souls were published on reddit. The reddit user had put his PS3 in debug mode and manipulated the in game camera to get a full view of Page’s nude body. Kotaku confirmed there was a fully nude model of Page’s character. Sony has been cracking down on sites that posted the uncensored nude images. This is what they had to say:
“The images are from an illegally hacked console and is very damaging for Ellen Page,” a representative for Sony Computer Entertainment America told Cinema Blend. “It’s not actually her body. I would really appreciate if you can take the story down to end the cycle of discussion around this.”
Why would Sony care to point out it isn’t her body? Well apparently Page is known for having a strict no nudity policy for projects she is a part of. While technically it isn’t her body, I am not sure she cares about that detail. This isn’t simply a her face Photoshopped on another woman’s body by some fanboy. This is a studio she was under contract with creating a full 3D model of her in the nude.
Quantic Dream is a European developer. Many of their games are known to have nudity or sexual content. More so with their UK releases. It is possible their developers didn’t view this as seriously in development as a studio in the United States might.
I think this raises an interesting discussion, how far does the studio’s responsibility go? To see this nude version of her, you have to hack the console. But, does that justify leaving a fully nude model in the final version of the game with an actress that most likely has no nudity in her contract? Where does this leave either party? Would Ellen Page have a leg to stand on? If she sued and lost, does this mean a studio can take an actor’s likeness and add in nudity without their consent?
What do you think about this?
Source: Polygon