Steamboat Willie, the first animated film Mickey Mouse is now public domain and a number of projects soon emerged wanting to exploit its popularity and one of the first to be announced was Infestation 88a game of Nightmare Forge Games which promises to be an asymmetrical horror multiplayer about a sinister rodent outbreak.
In the description we can read:
A cooperative horror game in which you are a terminator dealing with sinister infestations caused by twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends.
In the 1980s, what was thought to be a worm outbreak turned into something much more sinister. Infestation: Origins is a four-player episodic co-op survival horror game where you and your friends are exterminators called upon to deal with these mysterious infestations.
Some players expressed concern about the use of the number 88 used in the game’s title, which many consider a Neo-Nazi reference, which led the studio to change the game’s name to Infestation: Origins.
At the statement on Twitter we can read:
Our game “Infestation 88” takes place in the 1980s, with the year 1988 being chosen simply due to the symmetrical design in the game’s art and logo. Unfortunately, we were unaware of any additional meaning that the number 88 has. However, after learning about it, we are changing the name of the game to “Infestation: Origins“. We apologize for our ignorance on this and appreciate this being brought to our attention…
Neo-Nazis use the number 88 as an abbreviation for the Nazi salute Heil Hitler. The letter H is the eighth in the alphabet, where 88 becomes HH. In June 2023, the Italian Football Federation and the Italian government announced that the use of the number 88 would be banned in Italian football associations, as part of a joint initiative to combat anti-Semitism.
