Capcom confirms Africa setting for Resident Evil 5

In the wake of controversy suggesting racist undertones of Resident Evil 5, Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi explains the game setting in a recent interview with Japan's Famitsu magazine.

"We really wanted to show the origins of the virus," said Takeuchi, speaking of Resident Evil 5. "So for the setting we thought, how about using the place where humankind was born... We thought we would use Africa, which is now called the birthplace of humanity."

Capcom unveiled a teaser trailer for RE5 at E3 2007, which has a white protagonist (Chris Redfield) killing native African zombies. The video stirred emotions for some, suggesting the imagery developed by the Japanese game-maker was racist.

On Thursday, Newsweek game journalist N'Gai Croal criticized Capcom in an interview with MTV Multiplayer saying the trailer lacked the necessary context to explain the imagery. He added, "clearly no one black worked on this game."

Previous Resident Evil games have taken place in American, a fictional remote island, Antarctica, and most recently Spain, all of which have the player gunning down hostile Zombie (or Zombie-like) natives.

For players more interested in the game than the surrounding controversy, actual gameplay can be seen at the 5:06 mark in the video. Resident Evil 5 is planned for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in 2009.

THE VERDICT by Blake Snow Blake Snow's Avatar

As I said in my comment on MTV Multiplayer, the discussion of race feels ethnocentric, in that a North American perspective is judging the creative decisions of Japanese developers. In any case, these are issues Capcom will likely have to deal with moving forward, regardless if any real racism is involved.

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KingofRE

Every single person knows as well as anyone if the character was BLACK on this game and the zombies were WHITE there would be no complaints at all and everything would be fine and the game would have been more than likely released by now. Once again here comes the racists issue pops up because its a WHITE male BLACK zombies, why didnt anyone say anything about RE4 when everything was spainish?????????? Of course no one is going to because they were not BLACK...........I just wish people in this country or in the world for that matter would just grow up and get over this racist crap because thats all it is, that kind of stuff happened hundreds of years ago and we cant do a thing about it today so why go on and on about it today for goodness sakes we cant even make a game without it being an issue...........................................................................This kind of stuff will never end untill the world ends.........Thanks and I hope everything stays the same for the setting of the game and THEY BETTER KEEP MR. REDFIELD THE MAIN CHARACTER............

neko98

Okay, I might be a little long winded here. But, please bear w/me, as I think some of this needs to be said. First off, I'm black & have been a huge RE fan, since the 1st one dropped here in '96. Yeah, I've noticed that there haven't been any black main or primary supporting charas in the series & it kinda sucks. But, I've never loved or enjoyed the games any less for that. I heard that RE5 was, in part, inspired by Black Hawk Down, so I knew what to expect. When the trailer dropped last year, a couple of my (white) friends said, "Dude, isn't it a little odd that we got this roided out white dude blastin' all these black people, in Africa?". Then we'd just laugh & say "Whatev, man. I'm playin' that sh@t!!". I think that anyone looking to find racism in the premise of this particular game is doing just that. Looking. If the game's about a sharp thrill & a good scare, why would Africa not be fair game? Rally, IDK a single American Brotha that wouldn't be TERRIFIED by being far from home in someplace hotter than south central LA or the deep south, being pursued by a mob of violently angry Africans. It's worth mentioning that Japanese game developers produce "blockbuster" games based primarily on their perception of what American players will respond favorably to. In Japan, I've had elderly Japanese strangers come up to me, touch my skin in wonder and strike up conversations w/me. I've been asked, "So, you are good at dance & running, yes?". There was no ill intent in any of these questions. It was genuine curiosity. They didn't know how that might sound to American ears. They'd never even MET a black person before. I just replied, "Yes. I'm also fond of chicken, but I'd prefer sashimi or a Japanese girl." and we'd share a laugh. Jun Takeuchi said that he wanted to bring this game back to the origins of the virus. This is a VERY important point that I feel has been overlooked here... (I'll continue in another post)

neko98

I don't know about you guys, but this seems vaguely relevant to me... In Wesker's Notes (available to anyone who reads up on their RE lore), it clearly states that the game's viruses (T, G, T-Veronica) are all derivative from the Progenitor Virus. The Progenitor virus was discovered as a by-product of research being done (by Ashford & Spencer, I think) on the Ebola virus. The Ebola virus was discovered where?? All together, now... Okay. So, when Takeuchi made the statement about bringing the game to Africa to return to the origins of the virus, it made perfect sense to me. I certainly never viewed it as an excuse to go ballistic on a bunch of black folks in fantasy land. Christ... I'm TOTALLY looking forward to this game (Wish it was Jill, not Chris, though...). I'll be there to get my copy opening day & anyone who says boo to me about it will get a friendly crash course in G&P or get choked TFO lol. To be clear, some heads are opportunistic & have an agenda to pursue. People of this nature will generally try to raise an argument for their case, anywhere they think there's one to be found. That should not suggest, however, that all of us (blacks) are whiny ass bastards looking for any opportunity to drop the race card to get over on the proverbial system that's been "keepin' us down". Just view the game for what it is (awesomely awesome) & view people for what they are (deeply, tragically flawed) & let's rock this bitch, when it drops next year! anyway, that's MY 2 cents... Holla if you hear me!

ResEvil

Not havin' a go or anything.... but.... The I Am Legend thing? All the zombies in that movie happened to be "white" because one of the symptoms was loss of colour pigmentation....so you couldn't tell whether the person was white or black before they were infected....either way, they're colourless now. Now....Residnent Evil 5... I can see where the racial imagery comes into it....but at the end of the day... Did Spanish people kick off about Resident Evil 4? Did Germans kick off about Blood Rayne? Did Russians kick off about GTA4? No...Y'know why? Its not real. We don't think of spanish people living in the woods killing outsiders with pitch forks to the face...We don't associate all Germans with what the Nazis did...We dont think of Russians as drug lords etc... Its a game....meant for enjoyment and entertainment. I understand that the game creators could include more races infected in the game...but wouldn't that effect the realism of the game? There ain't too many white, asian, spanish etc... people in Africa. The majority of the population is black. I can see it now... you sit down to play RE5..."Wow! Chris sees mirages when hes left in the heat! Wow! he partiallty loses his vision when the lighting drastically changes! Wow! Its a...chinese guy...in africa....right....ok....and a white guy next to him...spose it could happen....' Down town New York maybe....not Africa. I don't recall seeing a single black person in Resident Evil 4....shouldn't the critics be more upset by this? I really do hate racism...but are people just looking for hate crimes where there are none? Ok...'spose i was havin a go...

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