Deep Silver Apologizes for Mutilated Dead Island Torso

[pandorum]

Oh wow a dismembered body of a bikini glad zombie from a zombie game about dismembering bikini clad zombies on a tropical, hot island and people are shocked? If you are, do not buy it, do not look at and do not care about it. Simple.

 

[Cpt. Slow]

Oh, I thought they were already apologizing for the game. But it turns out it was a silly looking statue.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Why are they apologising? Religion offends me. Pop music offends. MLP offends me. I dont expect an apology because it doesnt matter what i think. Only what others think. If they love that stuff then great.

Just cos you dont like something doesnt mean you need to be vocal and expect an apology. Its pathetic really. Just ignore it or just dont buy it.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

On a side note. If it was a male statue, i doubt there would be this issue.

 

[Daft Ghosty]

1. I have in fact played and enjoyed the game, and felt it did deserve a Game of the Year award from at least one publisher, as it did. Honestly, it was kinda buggy but I still enjoyed it. Custscenes were a little sketchy. That point is moot. The zombies are bikini clad because that's how they are in the game? No, really? I never would have guessed. Next you'll be telling me the sky is blue and my username is German.

The sky appears blue because all the other colors are busy bouncing around in the upper atmosphere. =P As for the name. You sure it isn't Dutch? I kid I kid =) But for real. I made that point because it was valid. That statue wasn't out of place. If it had been a arctic zombie game (which I'd love to play) then it would have made no sense. I do agree that the game was good for the most part. But it really fell off in parts, and it was almost game breaking buggy at parts for me.

2. I also understand that this is clearly not an obbject meant to be enjoyed by everyone, but they did a freakin' survey on the Collector's Edition, man. A survey I took part in. They had all the data they needed to make an edition that they felt their players would have enjoyed buying. Don't you think that if they're trying to appeal to a large audience they'd make something people would have likely enjoyed? Not this clearly esoteric form of glorified violence with mild attempt to reference Renaissance art (I'm going to assume Venus de Milo).

I don't know about the survey. I didn't take part in it so I have no idea what they were asking. Their choice on the bust very well may have come down to cost. It looks pretty simple to mold, and produce. Something more complex may have cost to much for the price point they were trying to hit. But as for the "glorified violence" (which the whole game is full with) I think The Power Station had it right, in one of their songs. "Some like it hot, and some sweat when the heat is on."

3. This was never meant to be art. I'm not going to buy an edition of the game purely because there's some possibility it will be artistically appreciated in the future. The point is we're supposed to enjoy it here and now. We're supposed to proudly display it on our mantle and say "I love this game and feel that this object from it represents it well". It's obscure, it's ugly, it hardly represents anything from the game, other than "bikini plus zombie".

I doubt like I said before, they were going for a collectors piece that would sell for real money in the future. But it is art to many. I understand you wanted something else. I wanted a better ending to ME3, you wanted a better item in your collectors edition box, but it seems we both got screwed in that department.

4. Yes, the game is far gorier than the statue. I understand that. But are gore and boobs really the only things they felt they could derive from? They could have used a main character. Or one of the iconic weapons. Or heck, Sam B's necklace would have been kickass. Postcards from the island, possibly spattered with blood. Tourist T-shirts. A zombie car-dash hula girl bobblehead. Sam B's do-rag. Purna's pistol. Xian-Mei's tie. A Halo Reach-esque diorama of the characters. A fully-intact zombie.

My point is this: They had many options of memorabilia to derive from the game. So many possibilities of what they could have given us to really interest us in buying it, and THIS is what we got?

All very good ideas. I would have like to have some of those items as well. The only thing I can think of is to pose a question to the devs, and ask why none of the items you listed above were thought of for the game. It may come down to the fact it would have cost to much. Or it could be they share one brain cell, and the animation department was using it that morning.

It's not purely that I find it offensive. It's that out of all their choices of what to put in the Collector's edition they decided on possibly the SINGLE WORST ONE that would offend everybody.

The worse one? It may be bad but it is far far far from what I can think of that is a hell of allot worse. =) On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worse. This only ranks about a 4.

It's a smack in the face for players of the game like me. We wanted something iconic, not something people would question my character for owning.

I fell ya man, but the last thing you really need to be worrying about is what a random stranger thinks about your Dead Island collectors edition statue. If they are friends then they know you, and know you are allot sicker for playing the game =P If they are a random stranger, they can get bent. I'm not sure how old you are, but one day you will understand it really is no one else business what you keep in your home, and if they are shallow enough to judge you by a statue from a game, then these are people you will never call friends.

EDIT: See this? I found this on Deep Silver's twitter. I'm glad to know this is still an option.

Spoiler: See, THIS is something more like I expected. It's what I hoped for.

It's a nice little set. If I were buying the collectors I'd still opt for the torso though hehe But if they have the above as an option maybe not all hope is lost for you yet. =)

 

[Darkbladex96]

Kind of tired of these pussy ass devs.

Oh look at this we released this bad ass thing that is probably going to get hated on, but it's just so awesome.

*2 weeks of hate*

Dev apology: Oh we are so sorry for using our time and resources to give you this thing that you aren't entitled to but we thought would be nice for you to have. We apologize for hurting your wittle fweengs, we didn't mean make you piss your pants can call you mama over a piece of mutilated plastic representing a zombie game.

Spoiler

ungrateful idiots

 

[Hazy]

"For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island."

Except you can't actually do that in Dead Island, you sleazy hack. Don't try and spin this like it was some kind of playful homage to the gameplay.

I think we should keep the torso, but give it a bulge around the crotch. That's a playful homage, right?

"My eyes are up here, mate"​

 

[dtgenshiken7]

Ah well, that's just what happens in a world with so many differing views and opinions, you're always going to offend one group or another, so this was probably to be expected.

However, I don't think there'd be such a large outcry if they made it a male torso. Of course, it would cut sales on them by over 75%, so there really was no contest. Unfortunately, the developers and the marketing department of deep silver seemed to ignore what was going to happen when they decided that selling a mutilated, big-breasted torso was a good idea.

I'm not sure though, when I saw this I didn't get the outcry. It's just a torso, it's not even pornographic. You see girls in costumes like this every day at the beach, but I'm pretty sure those same girls might be the ones opposing this.

but Andy, don't drag the gamers into it with passing comments on how we do this in-game. In-game, I hack until the body stops moving, I don't pay special attention to destroying the body to the limits of the games physics engines, The zombies just die and I complete the objective. I don't even particularly enjoy zombie games, honestly.

All in all, this seems like a whole lot of controversy over something that either didn't need it or could have been avoided by Deep Silver all sitting down and recatching their common sense.

 

[Klagermeister]

Kind of tired of these pussy ass devs.

Oh look at this we released this bad ass thing that is probably going to get hated on, but it's just so awesome.

*2 weeks of hate*

Dev apology: Oh we are so sorry for using our time and resources to give you this thing that you aren't entitled to but we thought would be nice for you to have. We apologize for hurting your wittle fweengs, we didn't mean make you piss your pants can call you mama over a piece of mutilated plastic representing a zombie game.

Spoiler

ungrateful idiots

It's not just that it's in poor taste. It's just so esoteric that not many people would buy it.
They had literally dozens of other iconic images/objects/characters to make a collector's edition out of, and they chose one that, without a doubt, VERY few people would even want.

Wouldn't you be pissed off if you waited ages for these editions to come out and saw how... god-awfully ugly it was?
It's like they didn't even use that survey info they gathered.

There were many things that would have been much better to include that more people would have wanted.
This wasn't just a poor PR choice; this was a poor choice in marketing.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

I still wouldn't want one in my house, because catching a glimpse of it late at night after a few drinks does not seem like fun!

So far as I'm concerned the sole reason for this thing's existence is to stealthily sneak it into the fridge of a friend.

If there is any justice, it would fit comfortably into the meat keeper.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I don't really see why this is sexist, one iteration of the article I read elsewhere even plasters the thing with 'misogyny'(Joystiq I think). I just see it as a crappy looking statue. There was a 50% chance of it being female and let's be honest, most people would rather see boobs on their mutilated torso than chest hair. Even more would just buy the regular edition of the game...

 

[MetalMagpie]

I still wouldn't want one in my house, because catching a glimpse of it late at night after a few drinks does not seem like fun!

So far as I'm concerned the sole reason for this thing's existence is to stealthily sneak it into the fridge of a friend.

If there is any justice, it would fit comfortably into the meat keeper.

This plan needs to happen. Somewhere.

And Youtube needs to be involved.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Oh... LOL. Rather than work up a new post I'll just quote one I just finished making in Discussion on the same subject before I read this.

"... it just reinforces my opinion that too many game developers are so lacking in basic social skills and sensibilities they should never be let out of their coding cubicles, because it's just embarrassing for the rest of us when they are."

Really, some of these studios need to hire a fully functioning sane person to give an opinion on things like this before it ever gets this far.

Right because programmers get the final say on what goes in the box, and not the marketers.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

This and that Hitman Absolution facebook thing have gotten me to wondering - who signs off on this stuff? Is some high level manager somewhere being fired over this? If you've got the balls to do stuff like this, stick behind it. Don't do it then immediately begin sobbing apologies.

I guess the more plausible option is that it's a new way to create publicity. Do something completely tasteless then retract it and apologize all the while getting more word-of-mouth than any tame commercial would. Still, I prefer the way they disingenuously got attention for Dead Island (1).

 

[Schadrach]

Ok, I have a question for you folks:

Would you buy this? And if so, would you still buy it if it were a male torso?

I'm not judging anyone, I'm genuinely curious.

That depends entirely on what size it is and how easily I can arrange it with my Slaughterhouse Terror Mask that's wearing my Scribblenauts hat. As for gender, either or, I guess -- it'd only really come off the top of my creepy stuff bookshelf for Halloween, and "dismembered torso" is a decent decoration for that either way.

 

[dystopiaINC]

Ok, I have a question for you folks:

Would you buy this? And if so, would you still buy it if it were a male torso?

I'm not judging anyone, I'm genuinely curious.

If I had played dead island and if I had really enjoyed it, and was very excited for this game, then yes. I would buy it, both male or female. it would go right next to my Connor statue from the AC3 Collectors edition. as it stands if i found this as a standalone statue maybe, because I'm a huge zombie fan, and the walking dead is quite literally the only tv show I still watch these days. To me I'm not really thinking of it as a human torso the missing arms and exposed ribs jump out at me and make me think "zombie" before anything else.

 

[Zedresserit]

I honestly think that the choice was made to go with a female torso because of the addition of a bikini top. Were it a male torso with swim trunks, it'd look naked and would probably spark more offense.
I suppose you can always just give the torso a shirt, but I don't think that'd quite strike the resort island chord that kind of makes a lot of the game.

 

[karamazovnew]

Why would this be offensive? A bad idea? Yes! A dismembered torso doesn't look that good in your average living room. That's why I wouldn't buy that edition. Lost money for the devs, but having unsold boxes seems to be enough punishment for such stupidity. Or is it offensive just because it's gruesome? Then any horror movie publisher should get down on their knees and beg for mercy! Maybe people got offended because they felt a market target for JUST a pair of boobs and a crotch. Well, that bleeding stub of a neck is enough of a turn off to solve that problem. Or hey, maybe they fear that some moron might get a weird fetish and raid his local graveyard with a machete and a Union Jack bikini in his pocket. All in all, I think this is just a marketing strategy. I for one have not played the first game (I find zombies boring.. I prefer killing living polygons) and this is the first time I hear about the second. Hmm.. maybe I should try this too.

Today an Amazon user has apologized for having included a copy of Final Fantasy IX in his PS2 selling offer at THIS link. "I deeply apologize for any offense or damages caused by the association of a PS1 title with the PS2. For now, I want to reiterate to the FF community, fans and Sony media industry how deeply sorry I am, and that I am committed to making sure this will never happen again."
It's worth noting that the user did not state whether or not the PS1 game offer would be scrapped. We'll update when we find out more.

 

[cookingwithrage]

Should have come with a real machete. That be fucking cool.

 

[Slayer_2]

Nothing apart from the sexualisation of a dismembered corpse, and how selling something like that with a game, with all the fire gaming is currently getting from the media about how it warps the minds of children, might not be the best idea. I am amazed that whoever decided that they were gonna do this didn't see this coming, and didn't see how phenomenally stupid they were being.

Out of curiosity, would you be offended if the bust was of a muscular male, perhaps with a well filled out speedo on? Anyone who lets their kid play Dead Island (A 17+ game) is a terrible parent anyhow.

Would I ever want the thing? No. But that's not a reason to rally against it.