RE4 Goes Player's Choice

January 31, 2006, 9:51 am EST
Total comments: 13

Now you can have the best game of 2005 for only twenty bucks.

CAPCOM ®’S RESIDENT EVIL ® 4 ACHIEVES PLAYER’S CHOICE STATUS AND EARNS NUMEROUS “GAME OF THE YEAR” ACCOLADES

SUNNYVALE , Calif. ¾ January 31, 2006 — Capcom® , a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced its critically acclaimed survival horror masterpiece, Resident Evil® 4 , has been awarded inclusion into Nintendo’s Player’s Choice program for the Nintendo GameCube™. The game will be relaunched with new packaging at a suggested retail price of $19.99. In addition to this recent achievement, the rave reviews from press and overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans for both the GameCube and PlayStation â 2 computer entertainment system versions have resulted in multiple “Game of the Year” accolades. Based on the popular Resident Evil series, which has sold more than 27 million units worldwide and is Capcom’s highest selling series, Resident Evil 4 is rated “M” for mature audiences from the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board).

Just a few weeks into the year, a number of media have already announced their best of 2005 awards. Highlights include prestigious “Game of the Year” honors from numerous esteemed outlets including Game Informer, GameSpot, GamePro, Spike TV Video Game Awards 2005, UGO.com, G4TV’s X-Play, Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Game Revolution, Lee Enterprises, GameZone.com, New Times Media, WorthPlaying.com, Real Detroit Weekly, GameSpot Readers’ Choice, Blender’s Readers’ Poll, IGN Readers’ Choice and Lawrence.com Gamer’s Voice Awards. Moreover, the GameCube version of the title earned first place status among games for the platform from IGN Cube, GameSpot, GameSpy, GameZone.com, Advanced Media Network and Home Theater Magazine. Resident Evil 4 was also included on lists of top games for 2005 from high profile media including PSM, Play, Associated Press, Cox News Service, Gannett News Service, Universal Press Syndicate, San Jose Mercury News, Maxim Online, Sound & Vision, Tacoma News Tribune, Hartford Courant, Global Gaming League, Punch Jump and The Oregonian.

In Resident Evil 4 players are reacquainted with Leon S. Kennedy, Raccoon City Police Department’s idealistic rookie cop from Resident Evil 2. It has been six years since the destruction of Raccoon City and in that time, the U.S. government has been able to destroy the nefarious Umbrella Corporation. Fast forward to 2004 and players rejoin Leon, who is now a U.S. agent with a top-secret mission. He has been tasked to look into the abduction of the President’s daughter and his investigation has led him to a mysterious location in Europe . As Leon encounters unimaginable horrors, he must find out who or what is behind everything.

Talkback

ArtimusJanuary 31, 2006

Now I'll have to get it!

JonLeungJanuary 31, 2006

When Silent Hill 2 (PS2) became a Greatest Hit, they added the extra side-story with that girl that was found in other versions and not on the original PS2 version.

So on a related note, it would be sweet if RE4 Player's Choice had the extra side-story with Ada that wasn't found in the original GCN version. I'm not talking about Assignment Ada, but Separate Ways, or whatever.

I <3 Ada.

vuduJanuary 31, 2006

That would be nice. Nice enough that I might buy the game again for $20. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure we'd hear something about that by now.

Ian SaneJanuary 31, 2006

That's not a bad idea in theory, JonLeung, but I imagine anyone who already bought RE4 would be a little peeved if Capcom "double dipped" like that.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJanuary 31, 2006

Jeux-France reported a ROOMER on that, that Capcom was working on the port of a port, over a month ago.

ArbokJanuary 31, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
That's not a bad idea in theory, JonLeung, but I imagine anyone who already bought RE4 would be a little peeved if Capcom "double dipped" like that.

For $20, and if it had all of the features of the PS2 version without all of the drawbacks, then I would likely slap down that money as I enjoyed the game that much.

JonLeungJanuary 31, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
That's not a bad idea in theory, JonLeung, but I imagine anyone who already bought RE4 would be a little peeved if Capcom "double dipped" like that.

Well, Konami's done it before, so why not Capcom? Did anyone get peeved when Konami did it? It's almost exactly the same case. Greatest Hits are to the PS2 as the Player's Choices are to the GCN. Maria/Ada as femme fatales in the main game getting their own story, which was added on when ported to another console. Okay, I'm guessing Ada's story is longer than Maria's (Maria's was essentially as short as Assignment Ada, which was already in RE4) so maybe people would be peeved at a lot more value for less money. Or, hey...put Ada's thing on a third disc and have that available separately for those who got the game the first time around. I dunno. I don't know if that's spoileriffic, but whatever.

Perhaps it's just what I wish for. *sigh* I shouldn't get my hopes up.

Failing that, I recall hearing about a possible PC version of the game not too long ago. If there was any truth to that, hopefully they'll include it on that version. So, like, PS2 content included but with probably the best graphics.

archioverloadJanuary 31, 2006

On a somewhat related note, it's obscene that RE4 hasn't sold more than a million copies in the U.S....but that is nobody's fault but Capcom's.

ShyGuyJanuary 31, 2006

I bet RE4 will hit a million by the end of this year with the player's choice thing. Cube games have a long sales life.

Ian SaneJanuary 31, 2006

"Well, Konami's done it before, so why not Capcom? Did anyone get peeved when Konami did it?"

Fair enough. I personally don't like it but people do seem to let Kojima do it. I wouldn't be affected anyway. Though I don't really want it to become a trend. If it becomes widespread someday I'll be in a situation where I'm stuck with the "old" version and I'd be pretty annoyed by it.

Nosferat2January 31, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: archioverload
On a somewhat related note, it's obscene that RE4 hasn't sold more than a million copies in the U.S....but that is nobody's fault but Capcom's.

Obscene i think is an understatement. But i agree with you. With the addition that i lay some of the blame on NIntendo as well, for marketing the formidable Gamecube as a kids console. Damn Nintendo of Japan's marketing department......

couchmonkeyFebruary 01, 2006

I'm with Ian, there's no way I'm buying the same game twice and I'd be ticked off if I bought the original version of a game only to get a better one a year later. But the solution to that is easy: don't buy a game until it goes Player's Choice.

Maybe I'll finally pick it up now, but I have to say, for me DKJB was game of the year. I'm no horror fan, though.

RennyFebruary 01, 2006

I don't think game companies can afford to split sales up with multiple releases. Movie companies can barely pull it off with DVDs, but the price for any version they release is comparable, so if they find that a lot of people are waiting for a better version later they'll still get most of that cash at some point. Games need to sell as much as they can at full price to make publishers money. So I don't think we'll see a lot of that. Maybe we won't. I hope we don't.

I predict MGS3: Substance bombs hard. Take that Konami.

Add to the discussion!