IGN's Pre-E3 Talk With Capcom Shines Light on REs

[xfactor]

IGN had a pre-E3 talk with Capcom's Christian Svensson. Here are the RE-related comments he made:

IGN: At this past Captivate, you announced Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, this team-based multiplayer shooter. Then you have Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D which is action-focused coming soon. Is there a vision for what Capcom wants to do with this franchise? It's obviously moving away from survival horror and more into straight action, like we saw recently with Resident Evil 5.

Svensson: Well we have Resident Evil Revelations…and then there's some other stuff. My take is this. Resident Evil fans who are action gamers will be happy. Resident Evil fans who are classic, survival horror fans will be happy. They won't necessarily be happy with the same products. But we hope that universe and that selection of characters can find happiness for all. Just stay tuned.

IGN: Where is Resident Evil Portable?

Svensson: Oh, Resident Evil Portable. That is definitely to be determined.

IGN: There was speculation that it was originally Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City for PSP but was later moved to consoles…

Svensson: I can promise you there was absolutely nothing connected between the two.

IGN: Also at captivate you announced HD remasters of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. They're coming out on disc in Japan but download-only in North America and Europe. Why is that? And can you comment on what type of development time and budget it takes for these types of ports.

Svensson: The digital market in Japan is a bit behind the Western markets in terms of adoption and the numbers of consumers transacting. The connected console rates are there, but for some reason digital hasn't caught on there the same way it has in the West. Our desire in making them digital in the West is we thought we'd be able to reach more consumers at a lower price point than if we had to put them on a disc and sell them at a higher price point. We thought the value proposition was better for digital for consumers and, at the end of the day it actually makes us more revenue, too.
It's still a seven figure investment for a project of this nature.

For development on these it's not trivial. It's not flipping a switch and you've got something on the other side. It's still a seven figure investment for a project of this nature.

For the full interview, head here: IGN

[Vector]

Damn, I literally JUST posted this in the news report topic.

So RE Portable isn't dead, I guess? Did soooomebody say NGP/PS Vita?

[Pikminister]

From the early reviews of the Resident Evil Revelations demo, it does seem like RE is returning to the old corridor skulking, methodical gameplay.

But lets hope that they get rid of that auto regain health system used in the demo.

They should've asked Sven how they will try to sell the digital games in that other country that makes up the North American market: Mexico.

Is Japan behind them also in the whole digital thing? WOW.

[Rombie]

Re: RE Portable - I think he's being cagey because Capcom is planning on just porting. I predict Resident Evil Revelations to be announced for the NGP, probably not at this E3, but within 6 months either way (prior or post) of the release of the game for the 3DS, and they'll class this as the Sony Portable title.

[Agent_Wong]

Wouldn't be the first time they pulled something like that. Probably won't be the last time either.

[Darkmoon]

It is a slight shame Revelations is for the one console I don't intend to get for years, since it's currently the game I have the most actual interest in. Guess I'll be YouTubing it up. Or begging friends to let me borrow there's for a weekend.

It is interesting to see Capcom trying to cover all the bases, and Sven even admitting to it. They know they have two different fan bases with some overlap. Guess we'll see how well it does, compared to Mercs, and maybe that'll show which direction the fans prefer. So long as the pricing is similar an action game and a horror game on the same console released in a close time frame should be a good method of looking at such things, I guess, as long as Mercs can overcome the stigma a lot of people have given it of just being a puffed up mini game.

[Alkar]

Maybe they'll announce Portable again at the E3. I guess when they were developing it Sony started sending dev. kits of the NGP around and they decided to switch platforms and possibly create a launch title for the new console. Obviously they couldn't talk about it.

[News Bot]

Maybe they'll announce Portable again at the E3. I guess when they were developing it Sony started sending dev. kits of the NGP around and they decided to switch platforms and possibly create a launch title for the new console. Obviously they couldn't talk about it.

This sounds far better than anything else I've heard on the Portable fiasco. To be honest, releasing it for the PSP at this point would be completely redundant.