Dead Island Riptide – Zombie Bait Edition Announced Containing Mutilated Woman Figurine, Deep Silver Apologizes

Let’s start with the facts: another Collector’s Edition has been announced for Dead Island Riptide, this time meant for the the European and Australian market, and exclusively for the Xbox 360 version. As for what it includes, I’m going to refer to the press release:

‘˜Dead Island Zombie Bait Edition’ Announced For Dead Island RiptideTM

Deep Silver unveils ultra collectable edition of the eagerly anticipated zombie action game for the UK market

15 January 2013 Hampshire, UK/. Deep Silver today revealed that it will be releasing a strictly limited Dead Island Zombie Bait edition of Dead Island Riptide when the game launches in the UK on 26 April 2013.

Available to pre-order now for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the center-piece of this collector’s edition will be a resin statue, which is Dead Island’s grotesque take on an iconic Roman marble torso sculpture. Measuring 31cm high and 18.5cm wide, each of the Zombie Bait sculptures are hand-painted and depict the grisly remains of one of Palanai island’s zombie infected.

Paul Nicholls, Sales & Marketing Director, Deep Silver, said:
(Dead Island Riptide is one of the most anticipated releases of the year and is set to build on the original’s reputation for OTT action, dark humour and brutal zombie bashing. We wanted to provide a unique collector’s edition that was utterly ‘˜Dead Island’ and would make a striking conversation piece on any discerning zombie gamer’s mantel.)

There will be a strictly limited production run of the Zombie Bait edition, ensuring that this is a genuine collector’s item for hardcore horror gamers. Also included within this ultra rare package is the special Steelbook edition of Dead Island Riptide, collectable artwork cards, and an exclusive pack of weapon mods that allows even more, manifold ways to dispose of the ghastly zombie hordes on Palanai island.

Dead Island Riptide will be released on April 23, 2013 in the USA and Canada and on April 26, 2013 in the rest of the world for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, for Xbox 360® and for Windows PC.

In other words: this Collector’s Edition contains a figurine of a mutilated bikini-clad female torso. Unsurprisingly, the decision proved controversial, with plenty of accusations of sexism, and some more general bewilderment at the thought that some people might want to display such a figurine in their house.

Publisher Deep Silver issued an apology regarding this, although there’s still no telling whether the contents of this edition will change or not:

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.

I personally have a nagging feeling that in the future we’ll remember Dead Island Riptide and its predecessor more for their controversies than their gameplay, but I’m also hoping that the fans will get a worthy game.