The Entertainment Software Rating Board has decided that North Americans will be too disturbed by the image of a dead ZOMBIE hanging from a tree, and so have asked the highly anticipated game's makers to replace the dead zombie with a "living" one. I guess someone didn't get the memo about zombies because as everyone knows, zombies are ALREADY pretty much dead. Undead is basically dead, in case you aren't versed in zombie lore.
Dead Island Original Logo
Dead Island publisher, Deep Silver, says that it is changing the game's logo for its North America release but this change will only apply to the North American box art, and doesn't affect the European release at all. This is because Europeans have knowledge of basic zombie information, so they know that zombies are ALREADY dead, and that hanging them doesn't kill them any more or less.
Less-Dead Island?
This is not the first time the ESRB has taken issue with the portrayal of the undead. Valve ran into trouble with the ESRB over the missing fingers on the zombie hand on the cover for Left 4 Dead 2.
Dead Island will be released on Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 sometime in the third quarter of 2011. Check out the amazing Dead Island trailer here. Warning: In this animated trailer, zombies who are already dead get deader.