Deep Silver has proceeded to release the Dead Island: Riptide Zombie Bait Edition, after "deeply" apologising for the 'offensive' game bundle earlier this year.
On the same day as its controversial unveiling the publisher issued a swift apology in response to the criticism, telling fans that "we sincerely regret this choice" and promising that "we are committed to making sure this will never happen again."
Now various reports indicate that despite distancing itself from the product, the Zombie Bait Edition has made its way into UK and Australian shops.
Dead Island: Riptide officially goes on sale in the UK this Friday, April 26.
Deep Silver UK was unavailable for contact at the time of publish, though a company representative confirmed to Cnet Australia that "an extremely limited quantity of the Zombie Bait edition has been made available to some retailers for those customers who wish to purchase it."
Comments
46 comments so far...
theopopp on 23 Apr '13 said:
Oh dear. What a bizarre product, feels very uncomfortable to sexualise/fetishise a brutalized woman. It really doesn't help with the idea that all gamers are immature and stupid. If we want to move the industry forward and reach more people then we need to vote with our wallets and not buy things like this. Or maybe this is what people want? Hopefully not.
Zellpunch on 23 Apr '13 said:
Delighted the Political Correctness boys can chalk this one down!!!! Zero interest in this game however! Doubt this offends too many also I don't know many people who's nearest and dearest have been devoured by zombies. Its a product, you don't like it do not buy it.
Agent K on 23 Apr '13 said:
Fairplay! I will be buying it!
Agent K on 23 Apr '13 said:
Fairplay! I will be buying it!
richomack360 on 23 Apr '13 said:
A dismembered limited edition item from a game featuring dismemberment.....
Not sure how people would be shocked.
FishyGinger on 23 Apr '13 said:
Because it looks s**t.
fightclubdoll on 23 Apr '13 said:
It is offensive... no need to put it in quotes. It generated a veritable **** storm of outrage.
But it's pretty clear that their "apology" was less than sincere.
steve_2003 on 23 Apr '13 said:
Looks like she's been on a date with Luis Suarez.
Talking of which, do you think it would be a good idea to include 'Suarez' in the next DLC?
TheLastDodo on 23 Apr '13 said:
Miraculously, every zombie left the tits intact.
TheCrimsonFenix on 23 Apr '13 said:
I'd definitely be more offended if the model was of a steaming turd.
mikachuuu on 23 Apr '13 said:
Who gives a f**k, Seriously if ppl go up in arms about a this thing than i don't know lol. Guess if it would a male torso it would be fine eh?
Mobius Evalon on 23 Apr '13 said:
What's the "offensiveness" here exactly?
Apparently literally everything can cause paranoid, small-minded, bigoted people to become offended and demand that their personal outrage be addressed. It's a dismembered and headless torso included with a zombie game, who cares?
Mini-Nev on 23 Apr '13 said:
While I have no interest in the statue (or game for that matter) I'm very happy to see this being released. I'm getting tired of sensitive people always moaning, if you don't like it don't buy it. Don't try to stop others from being able to buy it.
JuDDa on 23 Apr '13 said:
This....
And this...
sammikid on 23 Apr '13 said:
Bahahaha
What I find offensive are those willing to pay 90 quid for this piece of crap.
________________ on 23 Apr '13 said:
The fact that it causes disgust is the only reason why I personally think it is vital it's freely available to buy.
I don't believe in many things but I would die to defend the right to cause moral outrage.
roland82 on 23 Apr '13 said:
I thought the same thing, from what I read a very average game getting free publicity off a stupid statue.
KK-Headcharge78 on 23 Apr '13 said:
I'm not usually one for the PC crowd but this is not just perhaps offensive to some, parents will have a field day, but what gets me is the rank stupidity of even producing it, at that price!!! It reeks of sensationalisation to the lowest common denominator, in this case; gamers who think boobs, blood and union jacks together gets them hard.
Not clever.
Gaz78 on 23 Apr '13 said:
I'm more offended by the price
Bright-Light on 23 Apr '13 said:
Its more pathetic than offensive.
In order to side step some of the flak that they are getting they could have at least been less sexist about it, why cant they produce a lovely severed penis with complementary balls. At least then we get to choose, and neither sex is uncatered for.
And for those who hate the PC brigade, you are c**ts.
djhazardous on 23 Apr '13 said:
Why is it deeply offensive though? Maybe a zombie didn't want a bite of her tits, perhaps saving that for later.
Seriously though, if it was a dude's torso and still had his man-boobs intact, would that be deemed deeply offensive?
The world today is going down the drain with all of this "political-correctness" BS.
Do you know what I heard today in a shop? Some Polish bloke was being served and he didn't understand what the cashier was saying when he asked him if he wanted a bag, after he finally understood and finished being served the next customer took his turn and said "If they're going to live here you'd at least think they'd try to learn the lingo", and then the cashier said "that's a bit racist!".
I MEAN, WTF!? That was not racist at all. People are just so stupid these days they can't associate what is and what isn't racist/offensive/"deeply offensive".
Knight on 23 Apr '13 said:
It's just a piece of tat; really can't understand the outrage.
KK-Headcharge78 on 23 Apr '13 said:
And there goes the blue touch paper.....
TheCrimsonFenix on 23 Apr '13 said:
What exactly is that thing made of anyway ? They obviously thought they'd get on the collector's edition bandwagon and thought to put this thing into production and were extra guaranteed to sell because it's using sex to sell. Now they've offended some people they don't want to throw away the money that went into producing this s**t so maybe decided to flog it as some rarer item. They've probably been reading review scores of the game and are panicking.
sbradley88 on 23 Apr '13 said:
Looks to be a fair bit of Silicon to me...
alan666 on 23 Apr '13 said:
I had this on order until the reviews came out.
TheCrimsonFenix on 23 Apr '13 said:
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/well_done_sir.gif
ladycroft142 on 23 Apr '13 said:
If it was a statue of the groin area of a man with a huge d*** I don't think men would like it very much would they?
And no a zombie wouldn't leave a woman's breasts miraculously intact, that's just so men who can't get any will buy it 
FixBeatGames on 23 Apr '13 said:
yet page 3 girls are all fine and dandy.
correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't this 18 rated anyway? therefore if it's passed the board of ratings, who the hell is anyone to say it shouldn't be sold? get onto the board of ratings with your suggestions to changes in the rules. sad morons.
DAEDALUS79 on 23 Apr '13 said:
At least they had the balls to release it
richomack360 on 23 Apr '13 said:
You haven't seen the film Donkeypunch !
KK-Headcharge78 on 23 Apr '13 said:
Seen it? I'm in it mate dealing out the blows
TheCrimsonFenix on 23 Apr '13 said:
What kind ?
Imaduck on 23 Apr '13 said:
Good for them. Collectors gold really, controversy, cancelled, limited, back on sale, game mixed reactions "that trailer" etc. Someone will always be offended, if you let them stop you doing what you do or being who you are (within reason obviously) might as well just roll over and die.
This isn't for me, but I reckon gore nuts and collectors will love it. Also, comparing this to a statue of a guys crotch makes little sense
Fairer comparison would be some absolutely ripped male torso. Would that be a problem? "Zombies left his six pack intact! drwrgnlkhdng!! #sexism!!!!1211!" Don't see that happening 
Good for them I say and happy for interested collectors.
KK-Headcharge78 on 23 Apr '13 said:
What if it were a young child torso?
@Crimson- I asked for that mate
Imaduck on 23 Apr '13 said:
If it was a kids torso, it'd be no different whatsoever technically, but on the human side I'm pretty sure it'd be illegal. Go figure
What tangled webs we weave.
Ooooooo! they should've made it a sculpt of the kid post fall
velineon on 24 Apr '13 said:
I hope to see more of these thing released. I like to hear and see people get offended by this sort of stuff. And i hope the apology was not sincere. If your offended, don't look at it and don't buy it. Live with it.
More please Deep Silver.
Stigweird85 on 24 Apr '13 said:
This whole bloody torso thing was way to overblown, my only issue is it has no context sitting on a shelf. Had it had a zombified head on it there would be zero issues with it. As it stands it does look like it's just a sculpture of a dismembered torso.
However I did not take offence at it, I try to live my life by following this rule;
You can cause offence by accident, you cannot be offended by accident.
To all those people who were deeply offended and who took to twitter and other website to show how offended you were, congratulations you just gave the developer free publicity. Don't believe for 1 second that a single sale has been lost due to this "offensive" promotion item.
Also for those asking why the breasts are intact, my explination is simple. They are quite obviously fake. Zombie want meat, not silicon. It would be like an animal trying to eat rubber, they may try to bit/eat it but they can't make a meal from it.
Stigweird85 on 24 Apr '13 said:
No because men can be sexualised to sell stuff - I'm looking at you Diet Coke - but despite treating the man in such ads as a piece of flesh it's portrayed as innocent fun. It's a pet peeve of mine, the double standard. A guy sleeps around is a player, a women and she is a slut, a guy gets a stripper it's sleazy a women goes and it's all in good fun.
I can understand why people found it a little distasteful, however I suspect there is a rather large aspect of white knighting on this one. Hell paint over the stubby parts that show bone and blood and you have an example of Greco-Roman art. Is anybody offended by those? How about the statue of David? Don't make me reference the Simpsons as an example of the morale high ground brigade.
WiiFuelee on 24 Apr '13 said:
The steaming turd is the game itself!
ladycroft142 on 24 Apr '13 said:
How can you compare one ad to the vast number of ways women are sexualised in the media, movies and games and say it's double standards? A pet peeve of mine is men complaining that something is totally acceptable when it's not men that are being objectified. And how many women do you know that actually bother getting a stripper?
MPH on 24 Apr '13 said:
They are clearly releasing this to get more people talking about the game and more sales. I must keep abreast this situation.
Stigweird85 on 24 Apr '13 said:
I used the coke adverts(the style has been going around for years) as one example but there are many more out there. In TV and movies it is also used. As another example how often has "hunky fireman" been used as an object of desire, not based on their personalities but simply because they look good. How about the number of calenders sold where x male celebrity is wearing a speedo and nothing else? Those David Beckham pants ads? Do I really need to give more examples. I'm not denying that there has been rampant sexism and objectification of women for years but it is far from being an exlusive evil of man.
Quite frankly I think treating man or women as mere objects is abhorrent but it is a two way street both men and women are guilty of doing it and of being victims of it.
As for women and male strippers, follow any hen night and I can practically guarentee at some point amongst the booze their will be a male stripper(or at the very least they will do enough objectification to put your stereotypical builder to shame)
ladycroft142 on 24 Apr '13 said:
Objectification of women is far more rampant in society than of men, just turn to page 3 of a newspaper, look at any stand with adult magazines, music video's, the vast majority of female video game characters even most movies over a 15's can't seem to last the whole movie without some poor woman only in it to be leered at. I've been to many hen parties and never once was their a mention of a stripper. I'm not saying that it's an 'elusive evil of man' but that it is far from equal and sadly it never will be.
FishyGinger on 24 Apr '13 said:
I'm a sexual object, my ladyfriend uses me like a piece of meat. And good on her says I. She even snorts lines of diet coke off my chest.
Now I'm off to the MI to talk about biscuits, teraa.
Stigweird85 on 24 Apr '13 said:
You cannot say it will never be equal, men have had a massive headstart but paraphrasing you are essentially saying Women aren't as bad as men and never will be? That is sexist. It has been a male dominated society for decades and that'll take time to change but don't be fooled into thinking that women don't lear at me. The recent film of Magic Mike comes to mind. The content of the film may be different(I haven't seen it) but the trailers knew exacty what they were selling. How about the Twilight series? How much screen time was filled with nothing but topless men?
You'll get no arguments from me about Page 3, it's from an oudated time and doesn't belong in a news paper but calling the Sun "news" paper is also wrong, but that is a debate for a different day.