Halloween: The Game Devs Patch Out Sex Mini-Game After Underage Character Backlash

IllFonic removed the sex mini-game from Halloween: The Game in a pre-release hotfix, less than 24 hours after players flagged that the feature let a character modeled on the late Donald Pleasence sleep with underage teens. The multiplayer survival game, based on the Halloween film franchise, does not officially release until September 8 and is currently in advanced access for deluxe edition pre-orders.

Players on X spotted the issue last night. The mini-game, a play on the slasher "Sex Signals Death" trope that recurs in the Halloween films, applied to the game's playable cast of under-18 characters. That cast includes 17-year-old Annie Brackett, but also the 56-year-old Samuel Loomis, whose in-game likeness matches Pleasence, who died in 1995.

Today's Hotfix 1 patch removed the mini-game entirely, though the patch notes do not mention it. Posts on the game's subreddit confirm the removal, and the developers have not addressed it on Discord or social media. IllFonic did not respond to a request for comment. The article notes the quick response but questions how QA testing missed the issue.