IGN shut down comments after the publication published an article demanding Resident Evil 5 add or race-swap in a black protagonist for a possible remake.
A screenshot from Resident Evil 5 (2009), Capcom
The article, written by Matt Purslow, accuses Resident Evil 5 of being problematic for non-gameplay reasons about halfway through the article. After arguing for why Resident Evil 5 needs to be remade and rewritten due to its lack of horror elements and its gameplay design that favored mowing down enemies rather than surviving them, Purslow took a strange turn.
He wrote, “A whole new environmental structure and scenario design that reigns in the action and dials up the horror would bring it in-line with Capcom’s other remakes. But all of this doesn’t account for Resident Evil 5’s most notorious problem: racism.”
A screenshot from Resident Evil 5 (2009), Capcom
Purslow then stated, “Set in a fictional West African country, Resident Evil 5’s primary antagonists are Black people. Yes, technically it’s the Uroboros virus that protagonist Chris Redfield is fighting, but the parasite’s host is depicted as a nation of mobs and primitives who are violent even before their infection. Intentionally or not, Resident Evil 5 positions Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’, an uncivilised world harbouring a diseased population that needs gunning down via Western intervention in the name of global security.”
Later in his article he called for a black protagonist to be added into this proposed remake, “Even with a vastly improved, more sensitive take on the continent – perhaps one with a Black protagonist and more empathetic look at the outbreak – the experience would simply be too divorced from the original to hold the name Resident Evil 5.”
A screenshot from Resident Evil 5 (2009), Capcom
The article was subsequently shared to X where IGN quickly turned off the comments. Not only did IGN turn off the comments, but the post was quickly community noted.
The community note reads defends the game and states the game makes no race-based comments “towards people of color” and that no discriminatory comments “are present in the game and enemies are treated no different than any other in the series. The article also mentions that the game would benefit from a black lead in a remake, ignoring the character Sheva Alomar.”
IGN on X
The community note also cites an interview with Resident Evil 5 producers Jun Takeuchi and Maschiki Kawata conducted by Video Games Daily back in 2008.
In the interview, Takeuchi is asked, “The humans that you fight don’t all look African any more – there seem to be multiple ethnicities. Is there a storyline reason for this, or were things changed as a response to some of the controversy regarding race in the game?”
Takeuchi responded, “When we went to Africa to do research for the game, we took a lot of photographs and notes to try and recreate the scenery and atmosphere. When we got there, we found that – contrary to our expectations – the people there were not all African in ethnicity. There were Arab people, and a few Caucasian people as well. So what we’re trying to do in-game is to recreate, as accurately as we can, what we saw with our own eyes.”
A screenshot from Resident Evil 5 (2009), Capcom
Takeuchi also made it clear that while the game drew inspiration from Africa, the in-game location is fictional.
He said, “The place the game takes place in isn’t real – it’s something we made up for use in the game. However, the language they’re speaking is Swahili.”
A screenshot from Resident Evil 5 (2009), Capcom
As for Sheva Alomar, as anyone who has played the game knows, she is from the fictional nation of Kijuju and partners with Chris Redfield. In fact, she introduces herself to Redfield at the beginning of the game and makes it abundantly clear she is his partner.
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