We’ve all seen how the Xbox 360 has become the platform par excellence for Anti-Zombie videogames, but it’s still disturbing to learn of how much support Microsoft is giving to the development of a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ MMO:

Ask Jeff Strain what ultimate goal of his game studio Undead Labs is and he’ll give you a big answer, without a moment’s hesitation – Strain wants to create “a cultural phenomenon, rather than make mere games.”

The company’s vehicle for this has never been a secret: when it announced itself in 2009, its opening statement to the world was direct and to the point. Undead Labs wants to create the definitive, open world, online zombie experience, and it wants to do it on home consoles.

“We want to create the definitive zombie survival experience,” Strain told us in an interview. “It hasn’t been done yet, and we think that there’s a tremendous game there to be made, and we want to be the ones to make it.”

…

Strain’s dream online zombie game is still quite a ways away, but Undead’s small team has been working hard since its inception to make it happen. On Thursday, the team announced that it had partnered with Microsoft Game Studios to release its first title exclusively on the Xbox Live Arcade platform – a single-player, open world zombie survival game that will serve as both a sneak peak and a testbed for what Strain ultimately hopes to accomplish.

Once again we see the tired meme of the Zombie Apocalypse trotted out to create a ‘social’ game where players sit on their couches and plot the destruction/oppression of the Differently Animated. Only this bunch doesn’t just want to make a game, they want to create a “cultural phenomenon”. What phenomenon would that be? I shudder to think.

As recently discussed with the Penny Arcade controversy, we’re not apt to blame a single game or media product for the culture of violence and hate directed against Zombies, anymore than we blame a Dickwolves shirt for the ‘rape culture’. But these people openly admit that their plan is to infect the culture with more violence and distrust of the Differently Animated, so I think they opened the door to criticism on that level.

They’re like the Anti-ZRC; they want to change Zombie-Living relations – for the WORSE.

Appalling, and shocking to see, once again, Microsoft lining up with more support and exposure for the Anti-Zombie gaming world. Hasn’t Redmond done enough yet? When will they be satisfied?

Tags: Videogames

This entry was posted by John Sears on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.