But the development team behind forthcoming fantasy adventure title The Witcher: Wild Hunt seems unfazed by either moral or technical concerns. The game, due for release in May, contains sex scenes constructed from over 16 hours of motion capture data. There may not be any of Houser's dildo sex in the George RR Martin-esque fantasy plains, but there is a Hugh Hefnerian amount of lovemaking. It comes quickly, too. Within the first 15 seconds the camera droops to linger on a woman’s fulsome posterior, moments after dismounting the protagonist, the white-haired monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia.

"People might think we’re putting sex into the opening scene for no good reason," explains senior game designer Damien Monhier. "No, no, no. We are establishing that your character was intimate with this woman recently in order to plant in your mind that, at very least, he must enjoy her company." In subsequent moments we see the pair gently flirt in an atmosphere of easy-going post-coital familiarity. Their secrets have been spilled and now, as she freshens at the mirror and he tousles her hair, a deeper affection between the characters is established.

"Through sex we have shown that this is a person who Geralt would be compelled to chase after if she went missing," says Monheir. Five minutes later, the drama shunts into the future, a time when the woman, Yennefer, has disappeared. Your goal as lovelorn Geralt (accompanied by an older witcher named Vesemir) is to track her across the Skellige Islands. "Sex is the quickest way in which to establish the relationship and provide a justification for the player to pursue this woman," he continues. "We couldn't just tell you to go find someone you don't know or care about. It wouldn't work."