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Capcom: "Resident Evil 5 is not racist"
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 23rd July 2008
Capcom has defended Resident Evil 5 against claims that the game is racist.
Takeuchi was responded specifically to comments made by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, who had said previously that his first reaction to the trailer was that obviously no black people worked on the game.
Talking to MTV however, Takeuchi said that there are a number of black developers behind the title.
"There are black members in the development team. We do have staff working on the game, who are aware of the historical background and we are constantly checking these kinds of things with them," said Takeuchi.
"We certainly didn’t anticipate the reaction. We were quite surprised," he continued. "I think everyone understands that we never set out to with the intention to make anything that was racist - that was never our intention."
Takeuchi said that much of the misunderstanding came from the fact that journalists still don't actually know a lot about the game and the story it has to tell. He remained adamant that as more information became available to the press then the issue would resolve itself.
Resident Evil 5 is planned for a mid-March release next year on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - will you be picking it up? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (53)Stats: 0.148 seconds
fighting hoards of multi raced zombies = not racist
fighting hoards of mexican, asian or european zombies = not racist
fighting black zombies = racist
what a load of complete bullsh*t.
it reminds me of this: a white man beats up a white man, its assault. a black man beats up a white man, its assault. a white man beats up a black man, its a racist hate crime.
I think the people who are calling the developers racist, are being racist them self (edit: being racist by assuming the developers are being racist, therefore assuming racism. also I count their 'there were no black developers, I bet' comment as being racist).
goddamn 'only white people can be racist' attitudes.
Good man, focus on the important issues! PC version is always better.
Very true. In developed countries the people that are always calling people racists are the true racists themselves. I'd bet half of them aren't even of a minority. Just dicks that like to complain.
PC version of RE4 suffers from terrible graphics. It might have been a damn great piece of horror game. I heard strange rumours RE4 was derived from PS2 version(why not to XBOX? Probably false rumour...)
I heard post-patch it got a lot better though.
Since the game was made by Capcom (Japanese) it seems fairly obvious that no (or very few) black people worked on the game. Probably about the same as the number of white people who worked on it for that matter.
It seems to me that the sooner people stop spuriously fanning the flames of this debate the sooner it will all die out and we can get on with things.
I'll look round for it, thanks!
Not everyone has 'a chip on their shoulder' and as a person of mixed race myself, i can assure you that i didn't imagine the abuse i got as a kid in a mostly white school.
Saying that, i would hope the developers know what they are doing and that the stroryline is both interesting and offers non-stereotypical characters (but then that's probably asking a lot based on 99% of other games released).
RE4 PC sucked major ass. RE2/3 don't play very well with a keyboard either!
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Gosh, look at all those black people. Could that be because, perchance, the setting is somewhere in North Africa?
PSX Extreme makes a similar observation:
More telling is how posters on Black Looks' webpage comment on this:
Some of the most eloquent comments are:
"the game's setting in Africa. ...in Africa, if we're not mistaken, there are African-American individuals." Africa is made up of African-Americans?
If stated correctly, I completely agree with the comment. Its in Africa... I'm fairly certain if the zombie apocalypse happened they wouldn't be left out.
I also found it very amusing that commentary on Black Looks, posted by Nexxo above, constantly offered black people a capital letter (as in "Black"), where as white people were denied this favour. *Cough* racism *cough*
I can only laugh at the lunacy of various "victim" groups, claiming grievances against the (white, western, democratic, middle-class, educated, heterosexual) world. The only other option is to go quite mad.
"Is it because I is black?"
I'm Scandinavian American, thank you very much. :p
When I first saw the trailer I thought, "Wow that looks awesome, I can't remember the last game set in Africa." It never occured to me as racist, and I do think that some games are (I didn't particually like slaughtering Koreans in Crysis). I'm not surprised that the media jumped on this, I just wish Capcom had stood their ground. They could have released this statement months ago...
No really I am sick and tired of all this racism **** especial that coming from Blacks because Im sorry from my stand point I think Black now and days are the most racist of them all, Im sorry but who cares what happened to your great grand parents but man get over it, times have changed despite if you want to acknowledge it or not but the way I see it your only holding yourself back by hanging onto all these stupid racist concerns and that goes for anyhow who is Racist or claiming or to those that spout about racism with themselves intern being racist in the process ~_~
What a complete load of bollox
no, not really
you were probably being sarcastic but still... no , there is no intelligence whatsoever in the news
Anyway, i think if the the guy that made the very first comment on racism didn't made it, prolly thins topic was never raised here.
I have a colleague (a sussesfull black guy) that there's no black or whit guy. There are PEOPLE! Everytime anyone try to differ the minority (for better or for worse) u make the opposite on that thougt more angry against yourself.
But the worst thing isn't racism. Its "preconcept". You always see lots of gorgeous blond girls with some black guys. But ask the same gorgeous girls if they would date a white POOR guy.
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/07/dallas-county-meeting-turns-ra.html
Get over it already! There are racist people of all colors, cultures, religions and nationalities. IMO, many of those that try to make issues out of something like this are some of the biggest racists themselves. They are the ones trying to create anger and controversy over nothing. This crap is getting really old.
You can't do anything with any race without someone going "ooh, did you see how racist that was?"
The replies certainly indicate it's something people think is worth discussing though and it does lead into several salient points about racism in games. It'd also be unfair to only present one side of a story. Fill in other defences here.
This Jun fellow is not a very good liar. They knew this game had problems racially from the start. This was hardly news to Capcom.
Now, for all you RE5 apologists out there, listen closely for once, okay. It doesn't matter what you think. If you call someone a ******, or say that blacks are subhuman it doesn;'t matter that YOU didn't see the insult, or that YOU have no problem with that. I know this is a huge mental barrier for a lot of the folks in this thread to comprehend, but I'll give you some time to let it sink in. Okay, let's continue.
Blacks ARE treated ina racsit fashion in this game, Bottom line. Period. Resident Evil has had God knows how many games, and in all that time they haven't had one --NOT ONE-- black main character. Black are NEVER presented as intelligent or productive. Blacks are always one of the zombies. Whites are presented in a myriad of ways, blacks in only one, but the series never made a point of it until now.
ALL the blacks here are presented as zombies. The blacks who aren't infected still shuffle around like zombies, and look half dead. Only some of the racists in this thread could think that's okay. Will there be a blacks scientist fighting to stop the plague as there are in every other RE game? Of course not. Will there be some benevolent black guied to help the main character throughout the game and present the Africans as more than savages? Of course not.
Hmmm, I think we've found out why there are so many on this board who are enraged that they might not get to play this game.
And when this Jun person says blacks were on the development team, what does that mean? He used some blacks as the reference photos for the zombies? This is a crock of you know what.
All you guys who drool over this game, keep drooling, but don't lie and say the fact that blacks are being presented en masse as a horde that it's your "mission" to blow away wasn't a major selling point for you.
Capcom's had sales problems for a while and appealing to the racist fringe is clearly their new strategy.
A zombie game set in Africa and the majority of the zombies are BLACK?
Thats like when it was set in the US and most of them were WHITE.
Who would have known! Black people in Africa!
Oh and acting as 'savages', are they not zombies? And the only cure for a zombie is a gunshot to the head?
Where is it set then? I'll edit my reply accordingly?
And just an observation Joe your replys are very short and well to-the-point, you alright dude?
No. No. No. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous politically-correct-thinking right there.
In the US games, why must there be a black person "presented as intelligent or productive". Alright, you could choose to put someone in there, to satisfy those people who look for these kinds of things, but does it actually matter? Uhhm... Not to most of us.
Now, usually, when you set anything in a particular region you have the indigenous population in it, not ship in a load of folks who have no business being there other than the odd tourist.
As for all the characters being represented as zombies, how can you possibly know what characters will be doing what, unless you've played the entire game? All those assumptions you've made are totally fabricated, top to bottom.
The reason poor old Jun Takeuchi has had to defend this game is because of people like you, who automatically assume that when a game is set in Africa (or any region where the local population has a high-black percentage), it MUST be a racist diatribe.
What about FarCry2? Surely that must be riddled with racism?
Wrong
Resident evil 5 IS set in Africa. If the various news articles confirming it aren't enough in one of the intro videos to Chris's partner Shuva (or something), she says "Welcome to Africa"
The "well-informed insider" claiming it wasn't set in Africa which BT reported on was nothing much a bunch of BS
According to the new Winter Games Preview, RE5 is set in Haiti, which is in the Carribbean. Still 95% Black population, though.
Way to introduce yourself. Long time posters here defending their right play A GAME. WITH ZOMBIES IN IT.
In what way does this game say that blacks are subhuman? It's a game where you survive a zombie horde.
Played it, have we? Because it's a game. About surviving a zombie invasion.
Scuse my French, but gtfo.
I won't. I'll lie awake thinking, 'Holy crap, I hope there's no zombies out there, omg what was that noise'.
Welcome to the forums :) Somehow I can tell you're a 1-post wonder.
You're a funny guy.
Okay, now go back to being a racist ****face.
on the Comic Con Showing on G4 they stated that they go back to where the strain was originally created and they said that was Africa so did that change? since then?
Killing someone (what ever race) in a GAME! is not racist.
unless every single person killed in that game is a single race, and is made to look like it is that race's fault for all that is happening,
and then remember For F**K Sake it is only a bloody GAME, and not meant to be taken so seriously:(
Yeah.
The female lead looks hispanic, the main character caucasian, even though the game is made by Asians. Very racist. Four games are set in the US and Europe, blowing away white zombies. No problem there, obviously. One is set in Africa, blowing away black zombies. OMG, Racism!
You're right. From now on all zombies and baddies should be white. Because all bad people are white, while all coloured people are in action how like an angel, in their apprehesion how like a God. In fact, us coloured people crap pure gold, to be honest. I checked. I went this morning.
And when games producers need to boost sales it is always a safe bet to "appeal to the racist fringe" (whoever they are). I mean, WTF?!?
That logic reminds me of the Snickers ad that was pulled recently:
That's right. The Gay lobby objected to the commercial's gay stereotyping because in their opinion the speedwalker walked, well, a bit gay.
Some people will take offense even where none is given. Get some anti-dandruff shampoo: there's chips on your shoulder.
ROFL, that sounds awesome. Damn these lobbyists for pulling the best adverts...
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Such a funny advert, damn gays ruining all the fun!
I agree with nexxo.
I had no idea that Nexxo was black , still doesn't change my opinion that he is a smart bloke who posts well thought out replies. ;)
Still doesn't change the fact that if he was a zombie I would blow his head off just like any other person that turned into a zombie and tried to eat my brains.
Black, white, hispanic, asian, alien it doesn't matter they would all qualify for *BOOM HEADSHOT>* B)
If anything this game shows a white man trying to make amends for the foolishness of other white men:
White man goes to Africa and gets zombie germs then spreads them to other countries creating a zombie plague (white man's foolishness), white man tries to save world from zombie plague numerous times in numerous countries (main character), white man realises that the origin of the zombie germs must be eradicated to undo the harm caused by the other (foolish) white men who released the zombie plague, white man goes to Africa to eradicate the origin of the zombie germs, white man encounters black zombies but does not discriminate against them just because they are black and he is white and proceeds to blow their heads off just like he has done before in other countries with other cultures of other skin colours including white.