So Deep Silver went ahead and shipped the Dead Island Riptide Zombie Bait Edition regardless

We sincerely regret this choice.”

Those were the words of a Deep Silver rep in January of this year following the backlash that greeted its unveiling of the Dead Island Riptide Zombie Bait Edition.

For those who don’t remember, the SKU comes bundled with a bust of a dismembered female body. Or as MCV described it a model of some tits on a mutilated female torso”.

Deep Silver’s response at the time was as follows: We deeply apologise for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide Zombie Bait Edition, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia.

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 and are committed to making sure this will never happen again.”

So sincere was that regret that Deep Silver has now gone on to release the SKU anyway. The game is out this Friday and reports are already hitting the internet of consumers who have received their Zombie Bait Edition, torso included.

So if the publisher doesn’t regret its choice, isn’t deeply sorry and isn’t fussed about it happening again, then what conclusion are we left with? That MCV and every other outlet that reported the news has been played?