Deep Silver, the studio that seems to spend more money on its trailers than its actual products has once again proven that it has no idea what the hell it is doing. Early this morning game journalists received images of the “Zombie Bait” Edition of what will be “Bro-fest 2013″ Game of the Year, Dead Island: Riptide. This version of the game comes with a bust of a women wearing a British flag bikini that is completely soaked in blood, gore and missing all of its limbs.
Somehow within the confines of one press release the studio has managed to make itself look like they believe that weird sexualized zombie busts are what the fanboys will want to stare deeply into late at night, and they convinced me that they don’t understand the concept of “timing”.
You know what? I can’t do the standard game journalist thing right now.
I am way too pissed to be polite and try to talk about women’s rights, about how India is going through some rather disturbing trials over rape, or about how the industry still has not formed a proper answer to the insanity being discussed during the #1ReasonWhy debate.
This time should have been used to fix all documented problems with the first game, and maybe make a game that reflects the bold sound and feel that the earlier posted announcement trailer was going for. No matter what they shouldn’t be running around telling everyone that they want over a hundred dollars for a chopped up chest that they describe as “Dead Island’s grotesque take on an iconic Roman marble torso sculpture.”
I am completely embarrassed by my industry right now. I wake up every day looking for some grain of hope that will change my opinion for the better that the industry is heading in a better direction, but instead all I find is horrible, depressing things for us to talk about on the podcast. We have a hyper-sexualized library of *trigger warning*groping games on the Vita (approved by Sony), we have game designers whining about how their games that feature violence should never be brought up in any violence discussions because they solely feel they weren’t taking it all seriously so no harm no foul, and when added to stuff like the “Zombie Bait” I feel as if the game industry is choosing to ignore all ethics or personal responsibility in what they decide to promote or create within the medium.
Deep Silver, you have completely wasted everyone’s time. Your marketing is over-sexualized for absolutely no viable reason (and as Marc has pointed out ways still exist to do this right). Your first game was a huge disappointment, and the ” Zombie Bait” lacks any true focus or reason. Whoever came up with this idea should be taken to a counselor immediately because if they think this is appropriate for a product or for any culture in particular, then they have some deeply disturbing things rolling around inside their subconscious.
(ed note: Deep Silver has released a statement on its official Twitter account apologizing for the “Zombie Bait” Edition of Dead Island: Riptide. The wording in the post seems to indicate that this will not be a part of the release of Dead Island: Riptide, but it is unclear.)
(ed note 2: We have decided to amend this post to remove some language that was a bit too aggressive.)
