The things that come with limited editions of games are becoming more elaborate and more bizarre as publishers try to make their product stand out from everything else on the shelves, and now the upcoming Dead Island: Riptide has taken limited edition bonuses to a new extreme: the UK exclusive “Zombie Bait Edition” of the game now comes with a plastic depiction of a woman’s severed, bloody torso… for reasons that nobody can really explain.
The mangled, bikini-clad torso will be bundled with only the 360 version of the game (for some reason,) and plop onto store shelves the same day that the regular edition of the game is released, on April 26.
Now, I can usually understand why people would want most pre-order bonuses: I certainly can’t deny the appeal of an art book, a soundtrack, or even an action figure of the game’s central character. I’ve bought plenty of limited editions with pointless plastic figures or resin statues myself (even for a few games that I wasn’t really excited about,) and my gaming room is decorated with all the gaudy collectibles that I’ve managed to amass over the years, but I still can’t figure out why anyone would want to display a severed torso (or even pay extra to get one) in their living room. I guess it’s worth picking up if 1.) you never want to bring a woman home and get laid again or 2.) if you want everyone to think you’re a serial killer and/or a necrophiliac. This honestly seems like a publicity stunt done for shock value, and given the amount of people talking about it on the internet right now, I guess it worked. Unfortunately, none of those people are actually talking about the game that comes bundled with the torso, so it’ll be interesting to see if this stunt backfires for publisher Deep Silver.
Source: Joystiq
Chris Hernandez
I want it for reason two.