Naughty Dog has once again shown why they are treated with such respect around the gaming world.

Ken Levine recently admitted that the reason for going with a generic dudebro-type box art was because they wanted to appeal to the wider market. Sure, that’s fine, but it’s also something that tells us that they don’t have enough faith in the female protagonist of the game.

The Last of Us features two main protagonists, Joel and Ellie, and they have both been featured in front the box art (as shown below), with Ellie given a prominent position. So will that affect sales? Naughty Dog doesn’t care and here’s what they had to say in an interview with VG247.

“I feel like they don’t put women on the covers because they’re afraid that it won’t sell. It’s all gamers really know – and I don’t want to be sexist by any means – but I get the feeling, generally, that they think game’s won’t sell as well with a woman on the cover, compared to some badass dude on the front,” Ashley Johnson, who voices Ellie in the game, said.

“I agree with what Ashley said. I believe there’s a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less. I know I’ve been in discussions where we’ve been asked to push Ellie to the back and everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused,” Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann added.

They even posted this on Twitter.

Here’s the official box art for the game.