The Last of Us multiplayer censored in multiple countries

The multiplayer component of Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic adventure, The Last of Us, may have been censored for PAL regions, according to alleged correspondence with a Naughty Dog community manager which was posted on the Naughty Dog forums.

Naughty Dog community member Ramify contacted the developer about differences in multiplayer gore he noticed in different versions of the game. According to Ramify, the U.S. version's multiplayer featured "a lot more blood than the Europe/PAL version" and that "dismemberment is clearly visible in Survivors, where the head, arms and legs can be seen blown off for the entire round, and with extra blood!" The developer's community manager answered his questions via a private message confirming the discrepancies and Ramify posted the response on the forums.

"The gore and violence ratings are subject to local regulatory boards in various countries, so the game must be slightly changed in order to accommodate those choices," he wrote. "To be honest, I'm not sure what version Australia is getting. If you import the North/South American version, it will not be censored, but EU/UK will be."

Polygon reached out to Sony and Naughty Dog for confirmation and clarification. We also contacted the Australian Classification Board about the matter who directed us to Sony.