Ubisoft has apologised after an art asset featuring a homophobic slur was found by fans in The Division 2.

The slur in question appeared on a giant graffiti mural, spanning several storeys of a city building, and was highlighted in a lengthy Imgur post focussed on collating mistakes and other unusual occurrences seen in signage throughout The Division 2.

The offending multi-storey street art (seemingly heavily inspired by the cover of 1981 Black Flag single "Police Story", as noted by PC Gamer) depicts a policeman wearing a badge emblazoned with the number "FA6607" - an obvious homophobic slur, albeit presented in leetspeak.

Following the discovery of the image, Ubisoft released a statement confirming that the offending art asset would be removed from the game via a patch released on April 11th. "We apologise that this image slipped through our content review processes," it wrote, "and we are currently reviewing them in order to avoid this kind of oversight from occurring in the future."

The offending image, not exactly subtle.

This is far from the first time that a controversial art asset has managed to slip under the radar and make it into the release version of a game, of course. Recently, excellent Taiwanese horror Devotion found itself the target of sustained internet anger after an image linking Chinese president Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh was spotted in-game.

And, last year, PUBG Corp apologised after a pilot's helmet bearing the Japanese rising sun flag - a reference to the country's imperial army, and seen as offensive by many Korean and Chinese players - appeared in Battlegrounds. And a flag featuring similarities to a known "hate symbol" raised eyebrows when it appeared in Destiny 2 back in 2017.