‘Steamboat Willie’ Inspired Horror Game ‘Infestation: 88’ Gets Name Change After Title Accused Of Being A “Nazi Dog-Whistle”
Spencer Baculi
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In the latest case of social media wokescolds being whipped into a frenzy by their own delusions, a Steamboat Willie-inspired horror video game has chosen to rename itself after its original title was accused of being a secret signal to supporters of anti-semitic – and specifically Nazi – ideology.
Announced on January 1st alongside the classic Disney cartoon’s entry into the public domain, the upcoming debut from fledgling developer Nightmare Forge Games sees players take on the role of a vermin exterminator who, upon their team’s arrival to their latest job, discovers that the location is overrun by a legion of rats led by a monstrous version of its source material’s star character.
At the time of its initial reveal, the game was unveiled as Infestation: 88.
However, given the widespread use of the ’88’ by white supremacists as a coded reference to the phrase ‘Heil Hitler’ (as ‘H’ is the eighth letter of the Latin Alphabet, upon which the German language is based), the title’s reference to the number was soon taken by a large swath of internet activists as a supposed signal of the studio’s own Nazi beliefs.
Retweeting @DiscussingFilm’s now-deleted sharing of the game’s trailer, Twitter user @Oneirossandman passive-aggressively pearl-clutched, “Is it just me or is ‘Infestation 88′ a very odd name for a game where you have to gas rats”.
Later pressed for an explanation as to the reason for their concern, the user argued, “’88’ is a dog whistle used by Nazis (the eighth letter of the alphabet is H, you can guess what ‘H.H.’ stands for.), Jewish people are often compared to rats by Nazis, and.. well, gas.”
Seeking to support @Oneirossandman’s original conclusion with their own paranoid take, @CallMePov pointed to the sister white supremacist numerical code ’14’, used by such groups in reference to their ideology’s infamous Fourteen Words slogan, and asserted, “‘Infestation 88‘ is 14 characters including the space. Infestation is 14 points in Scrabble. [Nightmare Forge Games] have apparently been around for 14 years. The game is 1-4 player co-op. When you’ve already invoked one Nazi dog-whistle openly, seems suspect to link to the other one repeatedly”.
Likewise, @DanieleCreole exclaimed, “Infestation 88??? INFESTATION 88???? Oh hell naw, this a whole f–kin Nazi game! They thought they was slick with this antisemitic s–t. This company was formed 14 years ago… how the f–k did nobody see this!?”
Attempting to find more dirt in support of this argument, @Veeren_Jubbal – who in his bio proudly boasts that he created the ‘#StopGamerGate2014’ hashtag – claimed that the studio’s “mod team on Discord has out/proud Neo-Nazis”, his evidence a handful of screenshots taken from said server supposedly supplied to him by a friend.
As for the offending content therein, in one screenshot, a user can be seen making fun of non-standard pronouns.
In another, a user ridiculing the above rush to decry the developers as Nazis over nothing more than the use of the number 88 is met by the question “what’s wrong with that [label]”, to which the original poster replies “nothing”.
Thanks to the limited context of the screenshot, whether or not these statements were made seriously or in jest remains unclear.
Per the final screenshot, in response to a comment that “Nazis aren’t in the public domain yet”, another user can be seen leveling the intentionally ridiculous assertion, ‘bro make ‘Hitler 2′”.
The above user who initially took issue with the public’s quickness-to-outrage can then be seen declaring “nah wait if I say any more I’m gonna get canceled”.
However, it is unspecified whether this caution was given in regards to their annoyance with the mob or their references to Hitler.
Ultimately, after roughly a full day of such discourse, Nightmare Forge Games announced to the public that, in light of the backlash, they would be changing the game’s title to Infestation: Origins.
“Our game ‘Infestation 88’ is set in the 1980s, with the year 1988 chosen simply due to its symmetrical design in the game’s artwork/logo,” explained the developer of their original creative choice. “Unfortunately, we were unaware of any additional meanings the number ’88’ has. However, after learning about this, we’re changing the game’s name to ‘Infestation: Origins’. We apologize for our ignorance on this and appreciate that this was brought to our attention so we could address it ASAP!”
Next turning to address the aforementioned Discord screenshots, Nightmare Forge Games clarified, “While working on rebranding our game name and focused on other tasks, the game’s Discord server was flooded with users posting hateful and Nazi rhetoric, which we strongly stand against and have no association with our studio.”
“We should have had better moderation in place prior to setting our Discord live, so we once again apologize for the lack of preparation on our part,” they added. “We’ve temporarily halted chats, cleared discussions, and are working on bans while we set up better moderation.”
Further, the developer noted that “the users shown [in the screenshots] aren’t associated with Nightmare Forge Games. All rule-breaking users have been banned from the server.”
As of writing, Infestation: Origins is on track to whistle its way onto sometime in 2024.
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