Michael Jackson-ish Zombie Pulled from PvZ

by Levi Buchanan - IGN.com | 28 July 2010 12:00
 
The King of Pop will no longer terrorize your garden.
 
Remember the cool dancing zombie in Plants vs. Zombies that looked like Michael Jackson all decked out in his sweet red leather "Thriller" jumpsuit? Well, he's a memory now. PopCap is endeavoring to update all versions of Plants vs. Zombies, thus removing the MJ lookalike zombie. The iPhone and iPad versions have been updated to replace the dancing zombie with something more generic. Expect the same to happen with PvZ on Xbox Live Arcade. While updating existing the PC versions on PvZ will be a far trickier matter, expect PopCap to make sure any future versions of the game do not feature the character.
 

PopCap issued a statement to IGN about the decision to replace the zombie:
 
The Estate of Michael Jackson objected to our use of the "dancing zombie" in Plants vs. Zombies based on its view that the zombie too closely resembled Michael Jackson. After receiving this objection, PopCap made a business decision to retire the original "dancing zombie" and replace it with a different "dancing zombie" character for future builds of Plants vs. Zombies on all platforms. The phase-out and replacement process is underway.
 
It's unfortunate that the homage to the King of Pop was removed from Plants vs. Zombies, but with the image of Jackson at a real premium right now – UbiSoft just announced a new Michael Jackson game at E3 2010 – PopCap undoubtedly wanted to avoid any legal issues that the Jackson estate could viably raise.
 
Supplied by IGN.com