Left 4 Dead 2 forced to change box art

Those overprotective mothers at the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) are in the news again, but this time it has to do with a certain video game’s cover.

Anyone who is familiar with the Xbox 360 can recognize the box art of Valve’s Left 4 Dead, a survival horror game released in November 2008. The box art features a zombie’s crippling hand with four of the five fingers sticking out to give emphasis to the “4" in Left 4 Dead.

Valve is now releasing the sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, in November 2009 (AKA five months from now) and the marketing team cleverly came up with a new box art that not only adds the number two next to the title, but now the hand has all but two fingers chewed off, obviously signifying that this is the second game.

The ESRB was not too happy about this and has forced Valve to change the cover from the ringer and pinky fingers being chewed off to simply being bent forward.

While this may not seem like a big deal, if you look closely, it seems as if the zombie hand is now giving the “peace” sign (or “V for Victory” for our friends across the pond), rather than putting an emphasis on the game’s gruesome nature.

Are the bitten off fingers really that disturbing?