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Ellen Page Video Game Nudes Prompt Action From Sony

A Nude Photo Scandal For The 21st Century

It's a nude photo scandal for the 21st century.

Naked photos of the digital model of Canadian actress Ellen Page used in the video game Two Souls have popped up all over the internet, prompting take-down orders from Sony, IGN reports. Page plays the lead role of Jodie Holmes in the title from gaming studio Quantic Dream.

The images were taken using a debug version of the Playstation 3, which allowed someone to alter the camera angle in a shower scene featuring Page, according to Kotaku. Debug versions of video game consoles are typically given to game developers and sometimes to journalists.

The images hadn't generated much attention until Sony began demanding websites remove them, a move Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza called "very, very stupid."

Questions have also been raised about why the model of Page was coded to be anatomically correct in the first place.

"A 3-D model is usually as sexless as a wax doll underneath its clothing, because designing games is expensive, and creating assets for things players aren't going to see is a waste of time," Fast Company's John Brownless wrote. "That a Quantic Dream artist would unnecessarily create a sexually realistic body for a 3-D model, then task Ellen Page to bring it to life without her knowledge, seems creepy at best, and a violation at worst."

Of couse, the images are not actually of Page, but rather of her digital character, Jodie Holmes. That fact makes it all the more remarkable that this story has sparked so much buzz.

Welcome to the future.

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