The scene was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for evaluation. BBFC head of communications Sue Clark said, "There is only one man pulling the blonde woman in from the balcony [and he] is not black either. As the whole game is set in Africa it is hardly surprising that some of the characters are black ... we do take racism very seriously, but in this case, there is no issue around racism." Academic journals and conferences, however, have continued to comment on the theme of race within the game. In 2011, André Brock from "Games and Culture" said that the game drew from well-established racial and gender stereotypes, saying that the African people were only depicted as savage, even before transitioning into zombies. Writing for the Digital Games Research Association in 2011, Geyser and Tshabalala noted that racial stereotyping had never been intended by Capcom, though compared their depiction of Africa to that of the 1899 novel "Heart of Darkness". Post-colonial Africa, they opined, was portrayed as being unable to take care of itself, and at the mercy of Western influences. Writing for "The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference" in 2015, Harrer and Pichlmair considered "Resident Evil 5" to be "yet another moment in the history of commodity racism, which from the late 19th century onwards allowed popular depictions of racial stereotypes to enter the most intimate spaces of European homes". The authors state that Africa is presented from a Western gaze; "what is presented as 'authentic' blackness conforms to the projected fantasy of predominantly white gaming audience". In 2016, Paul Martin from "Games and Culture" said that the theme of the game could be described as "dark continent", stating that it drew on imagery of European colonialism and depictions of "Blackness" reminiscent of 19th-century European theories on race. The PlayStation 3 version of "Resident Evil 5" was the top-selling game in Japan in the two weeks following its release, with 319,590 copies sold. In March 2009, it became the fastest-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom, and the biggest Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game release in the country. By March 2020, "Resident Evil 5" had sold 7.6 million copies worldwide between PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and download, and the "Gold Edition" had sold an additional 2.3 million copies across those systems. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions sold another 1.7 million copies combined, bringing the total sales to 11.6 million units.