Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait” edition revealed, it’s terrible (update: Deep Silver responds)

I'm a college student with a huge passion for gaming; horror being my favorite genre. I like to write about games in my spare time. When I'm not writing, I'm playing or talking about them. Hopefully this continues into what ever future employment I find myself in.

Dead Island Riptide has had a new, special edition revealed, today. While North Americans will be able to buy themselves the Rigor Mortis edition, complete with a briefcase themed after the game’s island resort, European territories will have access to the “Zombie Bait” edition–a bloody stump of a woman’s torso, minus limbs but complete with large breasts (with the bikini being region specific). What?…

The 12″ resin figure also comes with a steelbook case, DLC, and an art book. Also the opportunity to show that you have just purchased some weird and sick shit. Who thought this was a good idea? It’s a bloody torso of a woman with huge breasts. How did this get past the planning stages? I’ve seen severed body parts for special editions before, but not a torso that sexualizes a dead person. Yikes.

While I wouldn’t be so quick to call this sexist, I think it’s just plain dumb and will spark sexist accusations. This thing is just off putting. I don’t see Deep Silver getting good press out of this at all. I’ve reached out to see if they can make a comment.

Update: Deep Silver has gone to Twitter to issue an apology, saying that they “regret this choice” and that they’re “deeply sorry”. They also note to make a point of how players of Dead Island had created torsos such as this in-game, while killing zombies–except that those kills aren’t physical busty busts on display in someone’s home.

Deep Silver says that they will be collecting feedback from the community in order for something like this to never happen again. Despite their apology, Deep Silver does not state whether the Zombie Bait edition will still be sold.

[Source]

  • http://twitter.com/tdnguyen3 Tom Nguyen

    “Hey Babe, welcome to my place. Oh yeah, I’m a serial killer. That’s just my trophy on the shelf.”

    • http://www.facebook.com/nick.greene.353 Nick Greene

      Lol that’s a nice idea actually

    • Prima

      YOU KNOW WHAT THE LADIES LIKE.

  • http://www.facebook.com/james.d.mcmahon James Dean McMahon

    Collectors Edition bust figurine for a violent game, what do you expect? A fluffy bunny covered in sprinkles?

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=654601521 Whitney Chavis

      A bust depicts a head and shoulders while this is just a dismembered and bloody torso. Out of context it looks like some sort of sick trophy of a serial killer. It is fucking creepy.

      • http://www.facebook.com/kyle.campbell.73113 Kyle Campbell

        It’s creepy, offensive, and downright hideous. Deep Silver’s PR department should’ve thought this out a bit more.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=649675768 Cris Hipolito

        yeah, they should’ve just made a zombie figure from the game.

  • StuntmanSnake

    It’s hilarious how they left her bikini still intact somehow on the severed torso. I’m in no way offended by this, but there’s no way in hell I’d display this in my room.

    • http://twitter.com/SatoriSatya Satori Satya

      I’ve been around (I’ve had to see actual corpses while in Law school), so I’m not offended by it either. However, you cannot help but think that that thing was tailor made for necrophiliacs. Who are probably the only ones who would find that thing worth displaying at home. I mean, Deep Silver obviously went out of their way to make it ‘sexy’ with that ridiculous bikini. Jeeesus.

  • VGAce

    “Deep Silver says that they will be collecting feedback from the
    community in order for something like this to never happen again.”

    Which I think may suggest that they didn’t do any kind of market research or consumer feedback prior to this horrible idea…which is obvious. I swear to God, some of these marketing departments exist in a bubble completely detached from their consumers or everyday people in general. How this got through to production stage without one person piping up with a suggestion that the idea might not be so good, I’ll never know. More than likely, there was plenty of criticism but one or two “big dogs” had the ultimate say and any concerns over taste were squashed under the logic of “duuuude, zombies, dead bodies, gore, boobs! This is topical!”

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002520725340 Elyssa Martinez

    This doesn’t really offend me at all whatsoever, & I also don’t think the focus should be on the fact that this torso has giant breasts (for some women actually do, though I do see how it could come across as sexist to some people). Even if they were smaller breasts or rather a male’s torso, the fact that they thought putting up a bloody, cut up torso as a special edition was a good idea completely baffles me.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jason.alpern Jason Alpern

    They should have at least been clever and called it the “Dead Island Riptide ‘Ted Bundle’”

  • Aartsbok

    Most of us in Europe would love to see this edition. I have heard nobody here having issues with it, of course I do not represent the whole of europe, but we listen around :)

    • Aartsbok

      oh, and yeah, I’d display it on my shelf. Been a horror, gore, guts fan all of my life, IN FICTIONOUS things. Really, it’s a bust, a figurine :) I’ve worked with corpses before, then a whole other ethic motive takes over, when it comes to entertainment and plastic things I really don’t feel anything wrong with it

    • http://twitter.com/PRDesPRI PRD=PRI

      Most of you in Europe thought it was a terrible idea and that’s the feedback the good people at Deep Silver got. So they cancelled it.

      • Aartsbok

        Oh really? Officially canceled? That’s a pitty. As said I do not represent the whole of europe, I probably just spoke to the wrong batch of people then :) A whole lot of pre-orders were going to be made. Ah well… Too bad

  • Prima

    Am I offended? No. Do I think its stupid? Yes. I really don’t know why they would think anyone would want to display a torso with a bikini on it… Like one of the characters would make more sense than this. Everything else in this bundle is stuff a customer would want: Artwork from the game, DLC included items, special steelbook with the game. Where they thought “LETS INCLUDE A LIMBLESS TORSO WITH TITS IN A BIKINI. THATS WHAT PEOPLE WANT YEAHHH!!!” is beyond me…

  • Grif

    I’m just surprised that we’re all the way up here in 2013 and people still give half a fuck about this sort of thing.

    • http://twitter.com/PRDesPRI PRD=PRI

      What the fuck does living in 2013 have anything to do with people having an issue with this sort of thing? LOL – It’s all about Deep Silver having bad taste and no class and people responding to it.

  • luigiix

    Who would sell this with a video game? What about the kid who goes the games store to buy his Pokemon and suddenly sees this on the shelves?