Josh H

from www.planetgamecube.com

Capcom of Japan puts down talk that its Biohazard (Resident Evil) franchise may yet reach other systems.

Source: Capcom Japan
Link: http://www.capcom.co.jp/index/announce/index.html


You may have heard recent rumors that Capcom could end its exclusive deal with Nintendo for the Biohazard/Resident Evil games if the GameCube doesn't start performing better in Japan. Today, Capcom of Japan firmly trounced those reports. You can see their announcement (in Japanese) at the link above, but here's a translation to English, courtesy of GameCube Europe:

"A rumor that Biohazard (Overseas name: Resident Evil) may be supplied to platforms other than Nintendo GameCube has started on overseas web sites recently. This has no basis and is not true at all. Biohazard, Biohazard 0, Biohazard 2, Biohazard 3 - Last Escape, Biohazard Code :Veronica Complete and Biohazard 4 are due to be put on the market for Nintendo GameCube exclusively as we announced on September 13th, last year. Our plans have not changed."

Note: Resident Evil 3's subtitle is "Nemesis" outside Japan.

Thanks to GameCube Europe and iromaizan for the tip!

from Nintendojo:

Capcom Reaffirms Resident Evil as GC Exclusive

Capcom released a press release regarding rumors of Resident Evil losing it's "Only for Nintendo GameCube" status today. The Japanese release explicitly stated that Resident Evil is a GameCube exclusive, just as they announced last September. Rumors implying future Xbox and PS2 releases are completely baseless. (tk)

Mattalos

Must've been a slow news day. I love when non-news becomes news. "Yeah, we're still exclusive! ... Who even asked?"

darkside

It was mentioned several times that I read around the web that the games might be going multiconsole. That was the reason for Capcom setting the record straight. Sometimes rumors get out of hand. BTW Many people were asking this question and I'm glad there is an answer.

jeffdsmith

The "rumor" was started when an old qoute surfaced from capcom of america's CEO. Before the release of smash brothers and pikmin in japan, sales of the GC was slower and he commented that if their were not enough users they would go multi console. That is all. Things are looking quite different now with Nintendo selling plenty of units.

Trigger

This is indeed a bummer... for me...

How much do you suppose Capcom makes off each copy of Biohazzard they sell? 10 cents on the dollar? Given those numbers... lets say (for arguments sake) there are 1 million Gamecube owners and lets say that 1/3 of them purchase Biohazzard. That's 333,333 roughly. So multiply that by $5 (1/10 of $50) and you get over 1.6 Million bucks. Now - let's also say that there's 1 million Xbox owners and let's assume that only 1/3 of them would purchase such a game if it were to come out on their console... same deal - $1.6 million. Now let's say there are 6 million PS2s in homes today (could be more, could be less, I have no idea)... If we said that 1/3 of them would purchase Biohazzard if it came out on PS2, that would be $10 Million in revenue to Capcom. They are basically throwing away 11.6 Million dollars in revenue assuming the other variables would be accurate. I mean - they are total fantasy numbers. I'm sure they make way more than 10 cents on the dollar for each game sold and I'm sure that if it came out on xbox that more than 1/3 of the xbox owners would buy it and same goes for the PS2... it would just be a huge seller. I can only think that Nintendo gave them some sick amount of money for them to go exclusive. That's why so few 3rd party developers do such a thing... it's expensive for the console to make it worth their while. I can maybe see why they would say "we wanted to make the game right and not be limited by the console's graphics or processor" about the PS2, but the xbox?? The Xbox is admittedly more equipped than the Gamecube (not to get into an argument about it being better, just that it's numbers are ever so slightly more impressive) and for certain at least capable of doing anything the GC can do graphics and sound-wise. I don't know - perhaps I'm just making a big stink out of it because I'm a bit jealous, but then again (and this is no sour grapes) looking at the videos for the new Biohazard game has me thinking it's not going to be all that great. I mean - the blood looks very minimized (except for the decapitation) and while the characters look pretty good, their motions look rather stiff. I don't know. I admit that I'd really like to play it. I just don't think I want to buy a Gamecube. Boo to Capcom. THat's just my opinion. At least you won't hear me talking about it going to other consoles anymore since now it has been "reconfirmed"

zero

All I can say is that Capcom will be getting my money for this game. And as much as I complained about it before, they will also be getting my money for the movie as well. I bought my PSX a long time after launch. I bought it after reading about Resident Evilirector's Cut. I never played the game, and bought it on a gamble, but the trick to it was I LOVE horror.So it wasnt a major gamble. I bought the Playstation, RE DC, and a guide book. Oh yes and a memory card. I beat the game in 7 days, with about 50 plus saves to my memory card . I was in love with this series, shortly after I bought ResEvil 2, then 3...I avoided Survivor. I bought a Dreamcast, and not for Code Veronica, but for Soul Calibur. I was shocked Capcom did not develope Code Veronica for the PS2, but after Sega became a third party developer and Capcom announced ResEvil:Code VeronicaX I was let down because it was also released for the DC, but as import only. With all this talk of the PS3 going to be released a lot sooner I have fallen behind. And feel I might miss out on another great system at launch. Yet I do have my Gamecube, and if Capcom sees fit to re-release the games I originally fell in love with on the Playstation, onto the Gamecube with better looking graphics and some plot tweaks...then I'm all for it I dont care if its about money, or populairty. Hell I've given thought to buying Resident Evil:Survivor just to be complete in my collection. I dont know what footage Trigger is looking at but from what I see, Capcom means business when they go and re-make a game rather than port it over. I'm very excited, and am counting the days for a U.S release date. And before anyone asks if this was being done for the X-Box rather than the Gamecube I'd feel the same way. But seeing as how its not, I'm still looking forward to this game.

Love & Peace
zero

BtW
in case anyone cares to look resident-evil-the-movie.com the flash site isnt too bad.

Decker

I found some other press releases that may interest you as well.

NBC Confirms : Winter Olympics Still Set to Begin Tonight in Salt Lake City!

George Lucas Confirms : Next Star Wars Film Still Set For This Summer!

Congress Confirms : Enron Still In A Lot of Trouble!

FBI Confirms : Bin Laden Still on Ten Most Wanted List!

God Confirms : Sun Still Set to Rise Tomorrow Morning!

huh?

seriously, i think they merely announced it to quell any rumors.... but damn man.... that was funny,,,,,

jeffdsmith

Trigger, I know what you are saying. I can bet you that Nintendo wish it wasn't that way. "exclusiveness". Every time any game goes exclusive you know that there is some money going under the table.

I think Nintendo would rather compete with out. If Sony and MS didn't pay to have so many games only on their systems Nintendo wouldn't have to. Then developers would just choose to release them on all consoles most likely.

Nintendo by far has the strongest first and second party games, its bascially what drives Sony exp, and MS too to go out and "Buy" game titles for thier system. So if that didn't exsist Nintendo would be sitting quite well without having to defend itself by buying rights to RE.

On that note, both Nintendo and Capcom have said that Nintendo is NOT paying anything under the table for this exclusivness. Supposidly the creator just loves the GC hardware so much he wants to do it. I mean, yeah, the GC is the easiest to program, but does that mean the company is willing to cut out alot of profit? Maybe, I don't know, seems fishy.

When you look at the whole picture this is Nintendo just trying to defend it self. Last Generation Sony did a great job of portraying the N64 as a kiddy machine. Now MS is doing it too. They do this through magazines, ads, and by buying rights to all the good mature titles. Nintendo has said time and time again that the GC is made for all audiances, and gaming is not defined by a particualr age group. Nintendo simply chooses to make family games themselves and third parties are welcome to bring out whatever they want.

Trigger

Jeff - I said nothing about GC being for kids... but while we're on the subject - All Audiences means child through adult. So take a look at most G rated movies... I mean it's ok to take your kids to go see some Nickelodeon movie with talking dogs or some Disney movie with singing toasters, but go watch them on your own as an adult and people give you funny looks... well of course, not always, but perhaps you see my point. Nintendo has always been family friendly - and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. Games like Resident Evil aren't typical of the usual Nintendo lineup - these types of games are more suited for the PS2 or Xbox owners since alot of the games that come out for these systems tend to be geared for a more mature audience. Some people just like to play games that have more adult themes and that aren't family friendly. That's why Grand THeft Auto is so popular. All I'm saying is that by making their Resident Evil games exclusive to Nintendo, Capcom is basically giving up huge potential revenue from other systems... and I suspect that Nintendo had to make that deal sweet for them to do it. It's survival of the fittest and if Nintendo wants a piece of the 21-30 crowd, they'll have to get into some of the more mature games. If they keep it up, I may just have to buy one. Who knows.

As for xbox buying a bunch of video game companies - well, they already had exclusive games from dozens of companies who only made games for the PC before the Xbox was even thought of. Microsoft also isn't a stranger to making video games... they've had a video game division for quite some time now and they've made some fairly good games - nothing spectacular, but decent... Midtown Madness and the Flight Simulator come to mind. Anyway - I don't think there's anything wrong with the way any of these companies are trying to compete with each other - I just wish that all games were available on all systems as a gamer. I'm a little disappointed to find out that Biohazzard will only be on Gamecube because I wasn't planning on buying one since I'm not a big fan of their first party games and I've always seen them as the big evil corporation (since they pretty much squashed Atari and Sega and a slew of other companies and also because they insisted on making their own cartridges for the longest time so only they could turn a profit from it making it hard for other companies to make money - and they could do it because they had a huge install base of their systems). I know it's ironic since Microsoft is so huge (as is Sony), but both of these companies are rather new to the video games market (especially Microsoft), so I see them as the underdog (especially Microsoft). Sony only got into this business because of a soured deal between them and Nintendo where sony was going to make a piece of hardware for Nintendo and Nintendo tried to ***** them on the deal at the last minute. I guess that was their big mistake.

I don't know - I can't complain about anything with any of these systems. They're all great in their own ways. I just wish I could play Biohazzard on my Xbox is all. Oh well...

huh?

you just called nintendo a big evil corporation... what do you think MS is? I mean MS squashed Netscape and pretty any vendors they wanted to by forcing PC owners to use their stuff by bundling on their OS desktops....

jeffdsmith

Trigger - I wasn't trying to imply that you were claiming that Nintendo was kiddy. I was just ecplaining the reasons that RE is Nintendo exclusive.

And about Nintendo being a big evil corp... Um. Yes, they do mean things, ALL buisnesses do. I wouldn't that against them, exp when you own a MS box. I mean, I think everyone can agree that MS is a much larger "evil" corporation, at least by your standards. Afterall, the only reason is entering the console race is to control the set top box market once it stabilizes it self. The xbox is much larger then just a gaming device, its MS's plan to expand and dominate into other area's other then PC's.

Keyser Soze

The MAIN reason I picked up a Cube...

to Capcom!

-k
###

Gallant Pig

Isn't that the goal of every console maker? First Nintendo did it and now Sony is doing it.

zero

I wonder if they all realize this thread is being controlled by Umbrella?...

Jackskeleton

I doubt they are concerned about the profit of the games, as the exculsive rights alone with nintendo and capcom alone makes it worth to capcom to keep it an exculsive.

Now that the systems are pretty much even up on what they can do, is when you see the real exculsives kick in.

djones6746

I will most likely purchase a Gamecube once the RE games are released....not really any reason for me to purchase one for the time being.

BTW....for anyone looking for one in Cincinnati....the Target stores seem to be able to carry this without problem so give them a try this weekend. The Target store by my house on the East side of town and plenty to sell.

jeffdsmith

No. Nintendo is just interested in games. MS and Sony want to control the whole "portal" into your houesehold, the central appliance that sort of controls everything. The xbox and PS2's are just the first gen of what both companies hope will become more and more central to home networking, commerce, games, everything.

Lewsiv

Oh yeah, I can totally see the PS2 or Xbox becoming the main hub for communicaton in my house. Heck, I will be ordering groceries, sending emails, paying bills, all on a video game system! Wait, maybe not. That might be Sony's goal, but you have to remember what Microsoft's cash cow is, and I don't they will let the personal computer go by the wayside because of the Xbox or any other gaming system for that matter. I think it might become a portal, but probably for video games only.

sniper308

You know paranoia is the first symptom of the T-virus

jeffdsmith

I'm just telling you what Sony and MS want to do with the xbox ans PS2. I never said it would work, but we are definitley moving towards everyhome having its own network, and a box found connected to a TV will probally be the primary way of controlling it.

All of MS's and Sony's goals are outlined in their finacial reports to their respective boards. They are available off their websites and lay all their ideas out plain as day to read.

When comparing it to Nintendo's, there is a large difference where the two want to go with each system.

There is no doubt the xbox is not going to act as some sort of main server, but it allows MS to get into the field and compete and begin gaining market share and public acceptance of the name in the living room.