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The ‘Dead Island: Riptide’ Zombie Bait Edition Brings With It A Buxom, Bloodied Bust, Awful Ideas
You hear that sound? That’s the sound of a lot of people getting angry over Dead Island: Riptide’s special edition. Unlike the Rigor Mortis Edition, which is actually pretty cool, Deep Silver decided that was far too tame so they designed the Zombie Bait Edition, which apparently has a target demographic of fucking serial killers. “What’s that on your mantle, George?” “Oh, you noticed that? That’s my bloody bust of a mangled woman. Her name’s Lola, isn’t she pretty? Hey, you want to come down to my dungeon, err, basement for a sec?” More after the break.
Here’s what the UK exclusive edition looks like:
I don’t know who thought this was a good idea, but at least Deep Silver was quick to apologize. The publisher took to Twitter, the Internet’s #1 source for apologies, to clarify their motives. Here’s what they had to say:
A statement on the Zombie Bait Edition:
We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition”, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector’s Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
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.
We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver’s entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.
Remember the first game’s trailer and how it sparked an industry-wide conversation about an emotional, character driven take on the zombie genre? A majority of my family aren’t gamers, but when I showed them the trailer, they were moved. This is where we are now.
Hey, at least they posted a “Warning: Includes contents that may cause offense” label. That’s… something.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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