Capcom: Resi 5 the ‘ultimate culmination of the series’

Inside Capcom’s Annual Report 2008, Jun Takeuchi, general manager of R&D strategic planning department, has outlined the publisher’s strategy to ensure Resident Evil 5 will be available to as many people as possible.

“Capcom’s strategy is to make this game available to as many users as possible around the world without relying on a specific platform (game console),” said Takeuchi. “To this end, “Resident Evil 5” has been made available to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, allowing for dramatically advanced graphics. Its development has fully utilized Capcom’s original developmental tool “MT Framework”, which facilitates multi-platform game development and has made it possible to cut development time and transfer costs as well as efficiently utilise our human resources.”

Takeuchi also noted that Capcom has strengthened its game development structure and currently employs “more than 400 people including company employees and outside contractors” who are working on Resident Evil 5.

Capcom has also gone to great length to ensure Resident Evil 5 delivers unmatched visuals, as Takeuchi explains.

“Our belief while developing “Resident Evil 5″ was that no detail was too small when it came to graphics. Our determination to achieve more realistic effects than ever led us to Hollywood where we had our material shots filmed to serve as the base for the 3DCG,” he said. “At first, the staff in Hollywood were somewhat dismissive of filming for a game. However, when they saw CAPCOM’s graphics in progress, they were so impressed with the quality that a mere “game” could offer that they proposed to shoot again from the beginning. From then on, we were able to proceed with screen development that was at the same time professional yet competitive. Once they understood our objective was to create graphics and effects like no other, they were even able to develop a capture system that would facilitate the project’s completion.”

Takeuchi concluded: “I believe that this game, when finished, will astound users with the quality of its unprecedented graphics. Our hope is that “Resident Evil 5″, when it is released, will be the ultimate culmination of the series by breaking down the barrier between movies and games.”

We certainly hope the game will astound gamers when it’s released on March 13, 2009. The visuals are certainly impressive and with a new control scheme – set to debut at TGS next month – Resident Evil 5 looks on course to be an early Game of the Year 2009 contender.