ESRB Stands Firm Against Hanging Corpses on 'Dead Island'

While people say not to judge a book-or anything for that matter-by its cover, cover design is a very important part of video games. The cover must appeal to the eye, convey the concept of the game, and not have dead corpses hanging around, even if a dead corpse hanging around appeals to the eye and conveys the concept of a game like "Dead island."

The video game "Dead Island" originally featured a blood red font contrasting with a black background, and creatively used a dead corpse hanging from the lone palm tree to form the "I" in "Island." It was a clever design. With just a look, I could tell this was going to be a survival horror game.

While most of the video game playing world will judge "Dead Island" by that cover, North America has the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to thank for an alteration. The original hanging corpse logo is still in the game title. The ESRB features guidelines-not rules-for cover art, and became a thorn in game developer Deep Silver's side when they requested a toned down version of the cover. What used to be a corpse hanging from a tree is now a zombie shambling forward.

Another example of altered cover art for a zombie game was Valve's "Left for Dead 2" that went from a chewed up hand with two fingers remaining to a hand with most of its four fingers still attached-sorry about the thumb-while sticking two fingers up. While both changes are not exactly game changers for either, it does question why they need changing in the first place. Is it a Big Brother thing where the ESRB is hoping the public doesn't catch wind that hanging and finger loss is possible in a video game, or is it just bureaucratic pressure for the sake of bureaucracy? When pressed about the matter asking what was specifically the issue, the ESRB simply responded with:

"The video game industry has set guidelines about the types of content that are appropriate in advertising and marketing materials, which includes game box art. According to those guidelines the depiction in the logo was not compliant.

We never censor or dictate in any way what type of content can be included within a game. However, a game's marketing materials are seen by an audience that is much broader than that which actually purchases the game itself, so we enforce industry-adopted guidelines as to what is suitable for inclusion in these materials."

And then there is the issue about "Dead Space" and the severed hand in the cover art. How did this get past the ESRB? Perhaps they just thought it was a glove?