That sounds similar to Halo 2 and 3's model. "Birthplace of humanity".

Which "virus" are we talking about?

Awesome, another 1000+ comments section

Hmm, it'd be nicer if he flat-out denied any racism, but it's definitely nice to have another angle from which to view the issue.

ehhhh, yeah this whole origins of the virus thing is not gonna settle any racial tensions at all, and I am African so i can say that now.

Sigh, only Capcom would make things worse to fuel this bullshit controversy.

It's an interesting take, but...I'm sure many of you get my point.

It makes it a little clearer, but now I'm more confused, I thought the T-virus was synthetically engineered at Umbrella.

For the love of god people keep it clean.

I for one don't really care about the race issue. They could all be pink for fuck's sake. I just care about game mechanics.

I hate this whole "controversy" bullshit. Some people can find racism anywhere.

It's people's sensitivity to issues that holds the gaming industry back. Can you imagine what would happen if someone tried to do a game like Roots, or Schindler's List? There'd be an absolute uproar!

Why can we accept things like this in a movie, but if it's a form of digital interactive entertainment, people freak out?

Oh, I know . . . people are idiots.

good ol famitsu....huh wonder if you'll be aided by a band of mercs in this game that would be tops. hazah for executive outcomes and hazah for africa!

Hey, this crap worked for Manhunt 2.

Wow.

Of course I'm not going to descend to the level of a Daily Mail reader but I'm also not going to pretend that reading those out of context comments doesn't exactly sound like its putting the matter to rest either :D

@eternalplayer2345: Same. Am I missing something?

All Im going to say is I just hope they dont backpedal in any of the original design aspects due to the current "scandal". @JunkersRoyale: Blood Diamonds is a no no.

Oh god, dont say that the virus originally came from Africa, we dont need any more controversy.

@eastx: Why does he have flatly deny something thats completely obvious? "We chose Africa because of story realted issues not because we are racist bigots". Thats silly. I hope Croal sees this to and does a follow-up to his last article. Maybe he would be happy with a disclaimer saying "This game not meant ot be racist"

I thought they did it become the term of "zombie" was from Africa by voodoo...

=.=

@EvoAnubis: Where've you been? Someone is already trying (on the DS no less)

[kotaku.com]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

Chinua Achebe saw Conrad's novel as racist because he wanted to. He completely missed the point of the novel rather than praising it for what it is.

I made a similar comment on the other commentary on RE5 that was posted last night.

People just need to accept that occasionally there will be certain ethnicities involved as a result of the setting of a story and get over it.

I don't see anyone complaining about the stereotypes portrayed in the media about white people.

@eternalplayer2345: Maybe it was synthetically created from a real world variant.

Argh, I meant "because" the term originated in Africa.

@eternalplayer2345: I assume the basis of the T-virus was found in africa... and the evil umbrella people modified what was a harmless flu or ebola virus into the mutant zombie virus we have all come to love and hate :D

The racism thing is such bull...why give it any legitimacy by mentioning it?

@eternalplayer2345: i think t virus was developed from the progenitor virus which was conceived from... i dont know

The game looks really awesome looking at the gameplay that is shown in this video. Can't wait for this game to come out.

thats actually a good theory.

the virus could have been tested in a environment thats contains a mix of humans and animals...so Africa is the decent choice...besides you can't be say an Asian is racist!

@Witzbold: dont pick on executive outcomes there track record was incredible... oh diamonds are not my thing i prefer precious metals blood platinum would do

lol.. the game is in Africa, how could it not have black zombies!?

Also, why no one cared when you were killing spanish zombies!? :P

@Clarke: Wow clark, audacious at best to say that after Bash's comments earlier.

I think this is interesting but as eternalplayer2345 said, I thought the T virus was a western companies invention.

Perhaps its moved, and they are trying to show the decay of mankind, all the way down to it's birthplace.

Its like if your house burned down, and you go back to your birthplace only to find your old house on fire too.

Well its probably not like that at all, but I don't care, the imagery is funny to me.

@Clarke: i'm sure Kanye can lend some insight on that

So is the setting Haiti or "Africa"? They can't even get that straight, it's no surprise there's a controversy in the first place.

Not only that, but wasn't the virus in RE engineered? A virus, engineered, and unleashed on the African population. Brilliance.

@JunkersRoyale: Actually Witz, please, please do pick on Executive Outcomes.

Way to rock the Liberal Arts alumni vote. Actually, Heart of Darkness is one of my favourite novellas, despite an entirely skippable first third, and the huge amounts of racism. Plus, Apocalypse Now was based on it.

Similarly, Start of Darkness is one of my favourite webcomic compilations.

Anyway, they are really not helping themselves with the racism issue by mentioning Conrad, nor by suggesting it's very much a "white vs black" kind of game.

@giant_chibi: Maybe they found it there and then modified it even more.

@JunkersRoyale: I know their history quite well mate.

Wow Mark, thanks for shouting out to me there at the end of the article!!! Glad that you guys got a hold of that video quickly. I thought it best that everyone see it immediately to know why it's being placed in Africa.

@Zeliard:

Takeuchi said Africa, so it takes place there.

Turns out the T-Virus is actually AIDs and having gay sex turns you into Tyrant.

Sounds like a good story to me. Having it explained like this should stifle any detractors of RE5 and it supposed "racist" overtones. Now we delve into the origins of the T Virus. I want to kill Wesker. That punk ass needs to die. he really pissed me off in RE4.

@超外人: "Zombi" and "Vodou" are Caribbean.

@Clarke:

They're probably talking about the origins of the T-virus.

[en.wikipedia.org]

@poopyloopy: Just because you think the issue of racism is bull does not mean that it is not an issue.

I think we should probably see the rest of the game, and how the story pans out, before we make any conclusions of the racism of the game, if it is or isn't. Doesn't that seem reasonable?

@Clarke:

Scratch that, they're probably talking about the "Mother/Father" virus ... the Progenitor virus.

[en.wikipedia.org]

It is clear to see one of the reasons people are so upset - context. Had you never played a zombie game or if you didn't know what this game was all about, the video has one huge white person gunning down a group of black people. There are larger issues here, but it is also clear that the designers did not think to provide context to any of it. The question is, was this overtly or inherently racist?

Race is an issue that you need kids gloves to tackle along with open and honest discourse. A white person does not know what it is like to be black and vice versa. When dealing with issues of race, it is never a bad idea to ask the communities involved what they think.

Hey let's freeze the screen just as the guy is mutating and his face vaguely resembles a historical stereotype. That won't at all influence people to continue taking things out of context.

@dead_red_eyes: Yeah I know. I'm just putting it out there that many theorize that the AIDS virus originated from Africa. I'm not saying it's racist or not.

@Witzbold: - "All Im going to say is I just hope they dont backpedal in any of the original design aspects due to the current "scandal""

You and I both.

the thing i dont understand is why the people who dont think the game is racist are getting so upset over other people calling it racist? Someone saying RE5 is racist isnt going to get the game canceled, and i highly doubt people calling it racist will get the location and/or story changed. Also on the subject of Croal i think most of you who seem so upset with him should actually go back and read what he wrote. Instead of thinking you know what he said and flying off the handle.

Looks like Capcom no longer needs a marketing division.

So I don't think this game is meant to be racist, nor do I think the Japanese have any sense of race relations at all, at least in pertaining to blacks. But that doesn't rule out the fact that this premise strikes a chord in me. It doesn't help that I have to deal with people constantly telling me AIDS came from Africa, now I have to deal with the T-virus. The Red cross will never let me donate blood now. No but seriously, this is not a politically correct game, it would be like having jewish zombies, and I think we can all agree that thats a definite no no.

I love Heart of Darkness ... I also love Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I'm so torn ...

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to this game! And, if any of you haven't read Things Fall Apart, you really should.

@Modus_Operandi:

If you had bothered to read the full article you would know that he already knows that the game is not intended to be racist.

"I think, again, the point is not that Capcom can't or shouldn't make a zombie game set in what appears to be an impoverished country where the majority of residents are black. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that if I was Capcom, I wouldn't have suggested to put out that trailer. I would have said, "You know what, this has tremendous capacity for being misunderstood, and we want to signal that this is not what you might think it is" - and they didn't do that. That's what I'm saying.

He was saying that the trailer itself could easily be seen as racist. Not that the game is racist and shouldn't be made.

I thought it had already been confirmed that it was in Haiti..Hence the voodoo thing.

Oh well, guess I heard wrong.

@Kunikiko: - "I don't see anyone complaining about the stereotypes portrayed in the media about white people."

Same here. I have see no gripe about the common white American stereotype. You know ... smokes Marlboros, drinks Budweiser, eats meat for every meal of the day, weighs 300+ pounds, has a bunch of guns in the back of the pickup, and is no smarter than a 10 year old.

@Daemonstalker:

I think that's probably what they're going to talk about in Resident Evil 5. Maybe the Progenitor virus was a mutation of another virus?

@eternalplayer2345: More reason for you to buy the game!

I'm sure a lot of people find 'Black Comedies' to be racist towards white people. Or should I say, "racist". No one seems to stir shit up with them.

@giant_chibi:

You sir are correct. The T-virus was developed from the Progenitor virus. Which we have no clue as to it's origin.

God I'm such a RE fanboy. Hahaha.

What a racist asshole.

/sarcasm