Capcom Five
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Capcom Five was a series of video games under development by Capcom's Production Studio 4, originally intended to be exclusive to the Nintendo GameCube.[1] Capcom later "called the information wrong, citing a miscommunication." [2] Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami had a strong hand in the development of each game.[3]
[edit] The Capcom Five
[edit] Fate of the Capcom Five
P.N.03 (or Product Number 03) was the first released in 2003. It was panned by critics and failed to meet the expected sales quota by a wide margin.
In August 2003, Dead Phoenix was cancelled and there are currently no plans to revive the project.
Killer7, originally scheduled for release in December 2003, was pushed back numerous times but the game was finally released in early July 2005. The game was met with very polarized reviews and also failed to meet the expected sales quota, though it gained a strong cult following. Killer7 was also not exclusive to the GameCube; a PlayStation 2 version was also released simultaneously.
Viewtiful Joe garnered outstanding reviews from critics but failed to catch on with mainstream gaming audiences. Its sales, while moderately good, didn't live up to Capcom's expectations. Despite this, it convinced Capcom to spawn a new franchise (consisting of multiple sequels and an animated series) to help add to the company's homegrown I.P. The game was subsequently ported with additional characters to the PS2, and its sequel appeared on both systems simultaneously.
Resident Evil 4 is the standout among the five, selling over 200,000 copies in Europe during its first month, and over 1,000,000 worldwide. It consistently appears on many "Best Of" lists for both GameCube and PlayStation 2. The Playstation 2 version was announced approximately 2 months prior to the GameCube version's release, and was finally available with extra missions some months later.
The Capcom Five has become infamous, particularly among Nintendo fans, for not turning out nearly as well as everyone had expected. P.N.03 was panned by many critics for being a dull, mediocre game, and Dead Phoenix was cancelled for reasons unknown. The other three games (Viewtiful Joe, Killer7 and Resident Evil 4) were all ported to the PlayStation 2, and the Viewtiful Joe and Resident Evil 4 PlayStation 2 ports were both given extra features not included in the GameCube games.
[edit] References
- IGN Staff. "IGN: Capcom on GCN Five Exclusivity", IGN, December 10, 2002. Accessed December 10, 2002.
- IGN Staff. "IGN: CGD 03: Capcom Five Not GCN Exclusive", IGN, January 16, 2003. Accessed January 16, 2003.
- IGN Staff. "IGN: Capcom's Fantastic Five", IGN, November 13, 2002. Accessed November 13, 2002.
