Due to objection from Michael Jackson’s estate, Popcap has been forced to replace the Michael Jackson-esque dancing Zombie from Plants vs Zombies. The game has been a massive hit on the iPhone, iPad and the PC with a Xbox 360 version already in the works which is also set to feature multiplayer. If you have played the game you must have noticed the “Dancing Zombie” bearing a striking resemblance to the King of Pop from one of his most popular songs, Thriller, but going forward, all versions of the game will be updated with a new disco-related zombie.
MTV Multiplayer’s Russ Frushtick reached out to PopCap to inquire about the change, finding out that Michael Jackson’s estate had contacted the publisher with objections,
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.
The change is currently underway with all versions being updated across all platforms.
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