14 DAY TRIAL // Capcom is a company that has never courted controversy but one that has had to deal with a critical situation in 2008 when Resident Evil 5, the latest zombie shooter in a long running series, was accused of being racist for the way it portrayed a white civilized protagonist killed black, skirt wearing zombies.
Now the company, which is looking more and more to the Western market to provide significant revenue for its releases, says that it is making sure that such a controversy never happens again.
Melody Pfeiffer, who is the senior public relations manager for Capcom in the United States, told Gamasutra as part of an interview that, “Since the RE5 controversy, we have become much more aware of how important it is that we are part of the asset creation process early on so that we are able to have a say in the end product.”
She added, “We are also designing a lot of our own assets from this side of the pond so that we are able to make strategic pieces of content that make sense for our market. We are working really closely with our producers in Japan to construct these materials for the West and they are open more then ever to hearing our thoughts and ideas for assets.”
The first reaction to the accusations of racism was for the Japanese team that was developing the game to downplay them, saying that their intention was not to offend anyone.
There were also reports that those who reviewed the game were asked not to mention some sections of the game.
Resident Evil 5 is still a hot asset for Capcom because of the impending launch of the PlayStation Move motion tracking system, with the company preparing to put out a patch for the game that will make it compatible with the new hardware.