Capcom’s Inafune directly managing Dead Rising 2

Dead Rising 2, the hotly anticipated follow-up to the 2006 original, is a “huge and interesting project” and “one of the first projects Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune has managed in years”, Capcom has said.

Dead Rising 2, which was announced last month, is being developed by Canadian studio Blue Castle Games (Major League Baseball 2K8). The original Xbox 360 game was developed in-house by Capcom, with Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune producing.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview to be published later today, Christian Svensson, vice president, business development and strategic planning, said: “Inafune-san directly is engaged in managing the project. It’s one of the first projects he has directly managed in years. He’s that engaged. The original writer and the original director are also working intimately with the team. The original director was actually acting as producer for a while, and is still engaged on a day to day basis, but Inafune has actually stepped up to do more of the day to day producing.”

Svensson also moved to reassure fans concerned about Capcom’s decision to have an external studio develop Dead Rising 2.

He said: “The guys at Blue Castle are massive fans of the original, and frankly it’s that fact that caused Inafune to pick them. If they weren’t and if they didn’t respect what the first Dead Rising was, they wouldn’t have been selected.”

He added: “It’s a huge and interesting project, obviously working with Blue Castle. Different than pretty much anything we’ve done before. We basically handed one of our newly minted franchise jewels to an outside company, and a western company at that, which is an interesting switch. And the fact that it’s been managed out of Japan is another interesting twist.”

Dead Rising 2, which is set several years after the zombie invasion of Willamette, is due out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. No release date has been announced. Check our Dead Rising 2 game page for all the latest screenshots and videos.