Capcom is under fire from two individual groups concerning two of its games: the seemingly innocent Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure and Resident Evil 5.

Apparently, Zack & Wiki contained an audio sample of an Islamic religious phrase “Allahu Akbar,” which when translated to English turns out to “God is great”. The sample was used during a scene where several monsters were circling a pole in what appears to be a sacred dance, then pause to fill up skulls with soup from an oversized pot.

The company received several complaints about the audio sample, including one from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). It has since then removed the phrase from the game. “We appreciated Capcom’s willingness to address Muslim concerns and applaud the company’s swift and appropriate actions,” said CAIR communications coordinator Amina Rubin.

Meanwhile, Resident Evil 5 has come under fire for what seems to be racist undertones present in the recently released E3 trailer. The video depicted the main character - a white man - attacking black zombies in what seems to be an African town. It is not known if Capcom will remove the setting from the game as of yet, but it has attracted strong criticism from black and African groups.

Following up on the controversial Dutch PSP ad, Reuters reports that Sony has removed the ad and cancelled the advertising campaign for the new white PSP in the region; the company has also apologized to anyone who was offended by the advertisement.

Most interestingly, Sony had received only one complaint from within Netherlands, where it was advertised.

Sony has had a checkered past in advertising its PlayStation consoles: they ran an ad in Italy showing a man wearing a crown of thorns with PlayStation symbols on it; and then they ran ads throughout London with “naughty” connotations. What did they do this time? See for yourself:

The above ad was run in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and advertises the upcoming launch of the white PSP in the country. It has caused uproars throughout the Internet, with people taking both sides of the debate: racist, or not. Surprisingly, those who are debating about the so-called “racist” image are from North America where the ad was not run. It is yet to be reported whether any Dutch people were offended by the ads.

Those who were upset by the image in question have not seen the other photographs in the series which clearly shows the contrast between black and white, with the final one showing the black woman in a dominating manner.

Sony took the time to respond to these allegations, stating that “all of the 100 or so images created for the campaign have been designed to show this contrast in colours of the PSPs , and have no other message or purpose.”

I’m not even going to bother taking a side in this, but I’d like to point out something interesting. Art connoisseurs may have noticed the odd pose of the white woman in the first photograph (look at her left hand). I have no idea whether this was intended or not, but it is an analogous comparison to one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous (and notorious) works: Madonna of the Rocks. See if you can spot the reference.

On a related note, I found the flag of Amsterdam to be quite interesting.