Capcom has posted an entry on its blog that details how the Wii version of Okami came to be. Capcom noticed how much feedback it was receiving for a Wii version of Okami even before it came out on the PlayStation 2. After not selling terribly well in North America, likely due to it coming out so late in the console's lifecycle, Capcom USA decided to take a second look at the game and reconsider its options. Introducing an already critically-praised, award-winning game to the Wii at an early point in its life cycle made a lot of sense to the company. Capcom USA got in touch with its parent in Japan, who provided the necessary approval to go forward with the project.
However, there was still the matter of who was going to develop the game. The original development team from Clover couldn't do it, because the studio had been disbanded. Capcom didn't want to make a quick port, so it wanted to be sure that it picked the right people for the job. While searching, Capcom VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development Christian Svensson (also the author of the blog post) casually met with someone at developer Ready at Dawn at Game Developer's Conference earlier this year and liked what RAD was all about. That meeting led to more formal talks, which eventually led to a green light on the whole shebang.
But even then, things weren't going to be very easy. Ready at Dawn was given the original game code, but it was incomplete and commented on in Japanese. Nevertheless, these problems didn't stop them from figuring out how things worked. Eventually, the missing assets were found, and the project was able to progress at full speed. Today, Capcom says the game is up and running on the Wii, though Wii Remote motion controls still need to be implemented.
For the full details on this interesting look behind the scenes, check out Capcom's blog post here.
