Controversial Alten8 game gets new lease of life

Just days after cancelling the release of controversial mobile phone title Office Massacre, Alten8 has announced that the game has been redesigned and is set to be released under a new name.

Office Massacre is now titled Office Zombies, and is undergoing plot and design changes accordingly. The game was due to go on sale this month and will now likely be delayed, although Alten8 said it will not take long to carry out the changes.

"After genuine shock at the negative press being generated after a few individuals commented on [Office Massacre], which was seen as nothing more than a cartoon game by those involved with it , Alten8 decided the right moral decision to take was to remove the game before it went to market in that form," the company said in a statement.

"Further to that decision and in conjunction with the original development team, Zen Design, the game is being quickly reworked, and graphical and plot changes made to rebrand the game as Office Zombies."

Alten8 cancelled the release of Office Massacre after it received what the company described as "unfair and unjust" criticism in the press. One commentator described Alten8 as a "bunch of idiots" who displayed a lack of social responsibility in deciding to release the game.

Alten8 said it is hopeful that the game's rebranding "will reassure the critics of Alten8, and the game itself, of Alten8âs social and business model."

"We also hope that it will align the game more in the genre of other accepted zombie style games, as opposed to some extreme violence games, which it was being compared to."

Alten8 was careful to note that the title is a "cartoon-style one finger play casual game, rather than a lifelike roleplay game," adding: "No offence to any party was intended by the original game."