Welcome to “Stop the Presses” Thursday here on GamerSushi where we collect the biggest news stories of this week so you can give us your thoughts on them. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Just when you think the game industry couldn’t dig themselves any further into a misogynistic hole, out comes Deep Silver with their Zombie Bait Edition of Dead Island Riptide, boasting a bust of a zombified woman in a bikini. When I say bust, I mean bust: this is just a woman’s torso with no head or arms, and a Union flag-emblazoned bikini barely covering her breasts.
Special editions of games are no strangers to large, tacky statues, but I can’t think of anyone with half of a social life who would want to proudly display a severed torso in their living room. The bust is 31cm high, which means that this is one prominent piece of tawdry memorabilia. According to Deep Silver’s press release, the statue is meant to call to mind a grotesque version of a classic Roman torso sculpture.
Try to dress it up all you want, Deep Silver, because gamers took to the Internet to make their displeasure with your choice of statue known. Because of the controversy surrounding the torso, Deep Silver released an “apology” about the Zombie Bait edition of Dead Island Riptide in which they don’t actually state that they won’t sell the statue, presumably because they already have a warehouse full of the damn things.
So what do you guys think of this whole kerfuffle? Is this just another piece of evidence in the mounting case against the video game industry and its objectification of women? What could Deep Silver have gone with for a statue instead?
Sources – Polygon, Deep Silver’s Twitter.
31cm eh? How many busts in a kilometre?
Seriously, I think this is ridiculous. I can’t see myself ever buying a Deluxe Super Combo Developer Pack with statues and cards and whatnot (although, I was tempted with the Fallout stuff) so it doesn’t really matter to me. They should have just given out real machetes instead..
This is one of the most tasteless things I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how this kind of stuff gets past so many people in a company without getting killed somewhere along the process.