Infestation 88, the survival horror that scares Disney and has Mickey Mouse as its enemy

Disney’s greatest nightmare is becoming a reality: once Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, anyone can use his image without consequence. Not his global image, but for the time being only that of his character in ‘Steamboat Willie’, the 1928 short film in which the popular character first appeared. It already happened with Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse was not going to be less, unfortunately for many, several projects have been announced with the Disney mouse as a prominent character.

A video game developer was very clear about the arrival of Mickey Mouse in the public domain and created a game in which the Disney character plays a prominent role. The game in question is Infestation 88, developed by Nightmare Forge Games. A horror experience that defines itself as “a co-op horror in which you’re an exterminator treating sinister infestations caused by twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends.” The game does not have a release date, but Steam is set for 2024, so we should not wait long to see what a cooperative survival horror divided into episodes and in which we will have to survive real nightmare characters has to offer.

Mickey Mouse does not escape the public domain

Disney claimed to have a plan to prevent Mickey Mouse from suffering what happened to other characters, but as soon as he entered the public domain, his character suffered the same fate as other great names of popular culture of the last century. For now, only the image of the character based on ‘Steamboat Willie’ is in danger, but the threat could become global as the years go by. We will have to see what the American company can do about it and how many creators try to take advantage of Mickey Mouse and the rest of his friends.

Horror is the genre chosen to take advantage of popular licenses entering the public domain. This already happened with the movie ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ and its sequel, and Infestation 88, being a video game, is still very similar in its proposal to what was done with the affectionate bear that became terrifying and ruthless.