Nintendo reeling – Resident Evil 4 confirmed for PlayStation 2

"The game was the crowning jewel in Nintendo’s ever-thinning third-party crown"

I know a thing or two about thinning crowns. I also know a thing or two about not using the same word twice in a sentence, and how not to mangle a metaphor.

But isn't this all just crap. The last all-new Resident Evil game was Outbreak, on PS2 (only). The next new Resident Evil Game will be Outbreak 2 on PS2.

All this "platform exclusivity" is just a smoke screen. Saying that Resident Evil 4 will be exclusive to the CameCuboid is meaningless while they are churning out a parallel series of games on PS2.

I couldnt care either way and the Nintendo fans are getting almost a full year before its released on the PS2. To carry a series forward you need hefty sales from consoles, if that means selling the game on multiple systems then so be it.

first of all, you have to realize that capcom is a business. to make the highest amount of revenue possible, you have to make the decisions that you have to make. this is one of those decisions. true, capcom do look foolish because they're practically munching their own press releases (would you like some salt or pepper with that paragraph, sir? a side of asparagus with your sentence, perhaps?), but gamecube is clearly not as profitable nowadays as playstation or (hate to say it) even microsoft's xbox.

but then again, what were you expecting? most best sellers coming from nintendo itself. the whole gba-gcn 'connectivity' gimm.. er, feature. giving online multiplayer the cold shoulder. if you ask me, this is dreamcast 2.

I agree that the end of this exclusivity is a blow for Nintendo, but it matters little like you say these days. RE4 will rock GC though, but by the time it reaches PS2, it will be at the end of PS2s life cycle.

PS2 is showing it's age also it's gonna have a hard time emulating the GC version, Viewtiful Joe is one thing but RE4 is qutie another. Should be interesting to see how they pull it off. Xbox on the other hand would do a much better job, and is more deserving to be honest.

Another interesting Spong missed is that RE Outbreak didn't even sell that well on PS2. PS2 has also missed two previous RE games which include vital parts of the RE story. Will they plug the story holes?

Capcom produce top product, but the PS2 has many of their games and it can be hard to keep up. Shadows of Rome, Monster Hunter, DMC3 and Capcom Fighting Jam and REO2 still to come we are spoilt for choice. PS2 has so many games that gems like those above miss out on recognition to the masses. I do feel that a more "spread the love" kind of Sega attitude would be better for Capcom. Perhaps push a few more of their titles to Xbox or GC to even things up.

Despite the PS2 thing you must be joking if you think I'm gonna wait for that version, I wanted RE4 yesterday, let alone early 2005.

Not at all, but this argument is old mate, lets not open this rotten tin of worms.
TBH i think its a really good move for the fanbase of resident evil, which is huge. Sure, plenty of Nintendo gimps will be annoyed but why?

Let the game go multi platform and then lets see more being released down the line.

Provided it makes it to GC before PS2, I'm happy.

Let's face it, almost all Resi fans have already gone out and bought a GC for Resi 4/0.

I just hope Capcom doesn't abandon Nintendo completely.

Is GC really a Dreamcast 2? I don't think so. Nintendo have continued to provide a large number of first party games and the console continues to get most third party title from, for example, Electronic Arts. Most importantly, it is still profitable for Nintendo.

Should Ninty pull something out of the bag for the Revolution, I can see third party support re-strengthening. However they will need something excellent - and they need to shake off the kiddy game image. They now have a need to produce some adult titles away from the likes of Mario and Co. Some of these are already coming for the GC with n-Space's Geist.

I was disappointed that Nintendo didn't attempt to push more adult titles with the DS. If there were a few more game types other than the traditional Nintendo favourites it would have been instantly on my shopping list. However now I'm waiting until more releases have been confirmed.

Oh, I do love it when people use "Dreamcast" as a derogatory term. Gits.


Hmm, yes, although Sega's recent approach seems to be shifting towards the Capcom ideal. The company's main titles seem to be ever more PS2-based (particularly with regards to Sega Rally 2005 and Sega Superstars), with Xbox being out of the focus (though Outrun 2, Otogi 2 and Spikeout: Battle Street are still looking great). Gamecube support from Sega seems to be a little thin right now - the system has seen two exclusives ported in Sonic Mega Collection Plus and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, and checking Sega Europe's listing they have nothing planned exclusively for Gamecube. Uh oh.

Seems the Gamecube is being quietly abandoned by all but Nintendo...

That's true Adam. Things will change again with Capcom when the Revolution is due out. Happens all the time with consoles and we expect it.

After the superb RE0 and RE remake, Capcom, Ubisoft and EA etc, have been carrying the mature game angle of GC, but Nintendo hasn't stepped into this arena yet. This really disappoints me because they make great games, and we know if they put their heads together they could pull off games like Capcom, Konami and those above with a more mature edge to them.

If Nintendo want a big step in changing the current and future state of play in the industry they must adapt, even more so if the japanese now have to cater their games more for outside of japan. Capcom have RE, DMC next to Megaman and Maximo. Nintendo need similar mature licenses to sell apart from bloody Pokemon. Zelda and Metroid are great, but that's not enough anymore. Only when Nintendo produce more variety will the customers come flocking back, and at the mo PS2 and Xbox have this edge against them. I want some salty Nintendo beat em ups (though I know there's one due soon based on Shonen Jump manga characters) etc, too much sugar is bad for you and me.

The amazingly ironic similarities between Nintendo and animation bunch Disney are astounding. Disney are currently dying a death because of anime and CG films. Their failure to adapt from just kids stuff alone is also hurting them even more now. Some folk never learn, but we hope they'll wake up and smell the coffee.

Unbelivable. Can't say I'm totally surprised and this will in no way effect me as I'm getting the GC Import version still anyway. But I personally see this as a bad move for Capcom in the long run. Sure it will give them more sales but, in my eyes anyway, when you make an 'exclusive' game multiformat it just loses a little bit of quality to it. I'm not saying that all Multiformat games are bad, far from it. But when your playing an exclusive game, you feel its that little bit better as it was made exspecially for that console and using all its specs to the fullest as well as that you know this is the best version of the game out there as well.

And bringing a worser version of the game out a year after the GC version is just stupid if you ask me. Because its a well a known fact the PS2 will struggle to run this, regardless of what PS2 fanboys will say, this will be a watered down version of the Gamecube version. No doubt about it. And when the millions of PS2 owners play this watered down version for the first time, its going to damage the franchise somewhat. Well thats what I think anyway.

But at the end of the day, if Capcom want to milk as much profit from the game as they can get and alienate the whole Nintendo fanbase they've built up a few month before the release, then let them. Ether way won't effect me much. I just hope they start making Xbox games.

Not bothered because we all know the current consoles are going into their last year. For this reason I'm stocking up on as much GC games as I can, and once the official stuff is gone I'll start on the imports again.

PS2 will be fed from second hand bins,cut price sales and imports.

I reckon RE Outbreak would have been a better option for Capcom to port onto Xbox, also because of it's online functions and the game is more of a side story. This would be easier for all to pick up and play regardless of being a newbie or not.

Capcom would have been better off doing this especially since RE is more popular in the U.S. Broadband is not a problem there as it might be here. Despite the RE:OB not being online it would have been better still giving Xbox fans something better to play than the currently lacking Silent Hill series. With RE OB2 on PS2 being online they should think seriously about it, also since Tekki on Xbox went down well.

As a lovely mixed herb applied to this potentially poisonous wound news for Nintendo, perhaps Capcom should consider RE for DS (and maybe PSP) exposure. Surely they must have that old N64 REZero code kicking around somewhere in a draw, and perhaps they could get the online options right this time via wi-fi. It's just a matter of time I reckon, before RE graces handhelds again.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Nintendo are too concerned with the Japanese market and not concerned enough with the international one.

The founder of Free Radical said in an interview that he felt it was bad for Nintendo to focus so much around Miyamoto's vision and games and that they shunned third party developers.

Nintendo can no longer ride on their fanchises. They produce excellent games, and no-one has a doubt about that, yet these games do not have a universal (all-age) appeal out of Japan. I'm buying more GC games than ever at the moment - all imports because of Nintendo's Europe approach - Tales of Symphonia, Paper Mario 2 and Prime 2 in a couple of weeks.

Unless Nintendo does adapt next generation to target a more mature audience then they may have to withdraw from the international market. The time when 12/13 year olds bought 'kiddie' games has now gone, and they will only buy more adult titles.

As I said before, the DS line-up for me reflects everything that is bad about Nintendo at the moment - good games but kiddie focus, late to Europe and innovation without prehaps commercial viability.

It's early days for the DS, but it so true Nintendo need to change. The reason Nintendo gave about the next Zelda game being the way it is was because WE wanted a Zelda game like that, and Wind Waker was what WE didn't.

If the new GC (which might slip to Revolution if GC passes away first) is more mature why are we not seeing any other games from Nintendo to back up their image change? Fair enough there's Metroid, Geist....but where is all the rest of the mature stuff?
No wonder folk are jumping ship to PS2 and Xbox. Even Sega have managed the balance between Sonic and Shinobi, so Nintendo have no excuse. Relying too much on others is now the hurting them.

With exclusivity loss of RE4, the tide is disappearing with Nintendo left run a ground. Nintendo are in need of some newer mature IP to draw the tide back in.

"The firm now has only Namco exclusives to point to, with Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia still slated for GameCube only."

Actually, Namco is currently porting Tales of Symphonia to PS2 and is also developing a new Tales game, (not) surprisingly for PS2 only... Probably just the weak sales of Baten Kaitos in Japan stopped them to move it Sony-side as well.

Namco has finished porting Tales to PS2 and has released it.

Tales is GC exclusive in America and Europe because Nintendo paid for the localisation into English. Namco have no plans to release the PS2 version in the US/UK, and rumour suggests the new Tales game will be Japan only.

With reference to The Wind Waker, I actually perfered this game to the N64 incarnations. I feel that Zelda needs to be an escapist game that doesn't have any relaity or even maturity to it at all. I think that the Wind Waker was the best Zelda since A Link to the Past. It has everything the old N64 versions lack - fun, good controls, good storyline and engaging gameplay. (As you can probably tell I didn't like the N64 versions, although MM was quite good).

Having said that, the new Zelda should be quite good fun, although I'm not expencting anything as good as the Wind Waker.

I would disagree with you and although i loved WindWaker and LTTP i dont see how you can say they are better than Ocarina of Time. No where near it in my opinion.

All the Zelda titles are classic though and ive actually only recently finished Majoras Mask.

I think that you either like one set or the other.

I really don't like OoT - I think it's clunky and has a lack of humour, yet I find LTTP and WW creative and amusing.

All down to your genes ;).

Actually, if you check Capcom's own sales figures, for the last year or two, their PS2 releases have nearly all sold under expectations whilst GC games have regularly sold over predictions. Now, when you are posting losses and you can see one system is regularly selling more games than you expected, whilst another is causing you to lose money, why would you shift upcoming games to the system that loses you money?

Yeah, Capcom will lose some GC sales when the game isn't exclusive.

Considering the strong sales of Capcom's other GC titles, and especially with Outbreak selling so poorly, a PS2 converstion did take me a bit by surprise.

However, that's life.

Arrgh capcom! you breached contract we'll see what nintendo does..
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