Topic: Resident Evil 4 Not GC Exclusive

[joshnickerson]

Hey, Capcom! You forgot your knife! It's stuck in Nintendo's back!

I can just tell how this is gonna turn out. RE4 sales are gonna suck, and Capcom's gonna say that it just doesn't sell well on the Gamecube, and that they HAD to port it to the PS2.

Ugh. Nintendo just can't seem to turn around these days without getting spit in the face by a third party. I'm very disappointed in Capcom. The very least they could have done is waited until after the game's release. Now the sales are probably gonna suck and Capcom will simply blame Nintendo.

[odifiend]

"The contract simply expires at the time of the future PS2 release. Exclusivity contracts mostly last for half a year, getting a four year contract is pretty fortunate."
A four year contract on an idea for a game- how fortunate.  The game isn't out yet and after it is released it will be less than a year on a game that was claimed to be staying exclusive PERIOD.
DMC2: Ouch, things don't always work out.
VJ Port:  Ohh, I'm so sorry Capcom wasted money porting a game that did well on the Cube and predictably didn't do so hot on the PS2.  Wahh!
I can blame Capcom because it was a stupid decision to announce it now.  It is bad enough they are porting it but to announce it before the game is even out the door?  See my view on capcom and what they should have done from Prof. 666.  This is so definitely Sony influenced.  Or the business folk at Capcom are retards who couldn't wait to spread the news and blew their chance of great sales on both systems.

[CHEN]

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I blame Nintendo for not paying out to keep it exclusive.

Oh dear... Capcom has the right to do whatever they want with their franchises. This isn't Nintendo's fault. Why would you want to pay an enormous amount of money if the game will still be released on your console, one year earlier even?

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Secondly,  you can't see why people are upset?  They planned on having the RE series exclusive when they bought the GC.

And they can still get it and the many titles coming to the GCN. I don't see what the problem is short term. Long term I could understand though.

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We were also told the Capcom 5 were only for the GC. Then it was 4, then 3, now it's one!

Technically P.N. 03 is still exclusive. This happened a long time ago and Capcom is now struggling. It's a business trying to survive the harsh world of big corporations. Try to understand that.

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It virtually assures that people will wait for their PS2 version, which will be enhanced, no doubt.

And why are you so sure about that?

I know this is a Nintendo forum and I perfectly understand your reactions. I only own a GameCube myself and I, too, am worried about this announcement, especially the bad timing. But there seems to be a bit of a total disbelief that Capcom 'betrayed' and 'lied' to Nintendo and I'm trying to explain that this announcement isn't really surprising at all. I do, however, despise the timing that the Capcom executives announced this. If you truly believed the Capcom 5 were to be fully developed and exclusive, then I say you weren't being realistic.

[Savior]

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Capcom has the right to do whatever they want with their franchises

When you sign a contract, to make it exclusive, you cant suddenly go and change that.  Contracts tend to be legal binding. You cant change it suddenly, because you change your mind.


Remember way back when the RE1 Remake was announced?  We were promised Exclusivity of RE 1, Zero, RE 4, and the ports of the PS1/PS2 REs.  We werent promised time exclusivity. Thats another thing entirely

Nintendo was promised FULL Exclusivity.  I dont see Nintendo getting Devil May Cry 3 ported huh.... ?

[CHEN]

I don't think you exactly know what exclusivity means. If Capcom actually broke the contract, wouldn't Nintendo lawyers hunt them down?

[mjbd]

Exclusive doesnt really mean it wont be released on any other system.  Splinter Cell was exclusive to X-box, for about 4 months.  So if Resident Evil 4 is exclusive to gamecube for year, thats not a bad deal.  And lets not forget, the PS2 version is gonna be so watered down.  Its gonna be just like Splinter Cell, the X-box version ran smoother, and looked much better.  I dont really blame them, a crappy version of RE4 will still sell a million units on PS2, and the superior gamecube version wont sell to much better.  A year of exclusiveness is still better than none at all.

[Savior]

Your confusing Console Exclusivity with Time Exclusivity.


DOA Franchise, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid 3, Devil may cry all examples of Console exclusivity.

Splinter Cell is a good example of a time exclusive game

GTA 3/Vice City were originally Console Exclusives, but Rockstar re-negotiated with Sony to allow them to release it on the Xbox, of course Sony got exclusive rights to San Andreas, and possibly PS3 GTAs...

[Mario]

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Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Baten Kaitos sold like sh#t, it's as much a candidate for porting as P.N.03.

Uh, not quite. It sold underwhelming in Japan, but it isn't even out anywhere else yet. I think it could be pretty sucessful in the US with all its FMV given the right advertising.

The stupid thing is, the only games that Capcom have developed this gen that have underperformed, have been PS2 games. Every single Capcom GC game released this gen exceeded sales expectations, you'd think the smart thing to do after realising this would be to port more games to GC? I don't understand. I wonder if we'll ever find out the real reason for RE4 coming to PS2?

Capcom need to port Okami and a DMC1+2+3 bundle to GC.  

[Savior]

Okami

that game looks awesome, that and Wanda and the Collosus are the two PS2 games i wish were on the GCN...  

[kennyb27]

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Originally posted by: CHEN

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Secondly,  you can't see why people are upset?  They planned on having the RE series exclusive when they bought the GC.

And they can still get it and the many titles coming to the GCN. I don't see what the problem is short term. Long term I could understand though.

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We were also told the Capcom 5 were only for the GC. Then it was 4, then 3, now it's one!

Technically P.N. 03 is still exclusive. This happened a long time ago and Capcom is now struggling. It's a business trying to survive the harsh world of big corporations. Try to understand that.

The problem is very simple.  If Capcom had waited until maybe mid-February or March to break this, I may have been a bit more sympathetic.  But like most people here have said, it is a knife in the back of Nintendo.

And PN03 is the only one we are counting.  The rest are not exclusvie any more.

[Djunknown]

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don't think you exactly know what exclusivity means. If Capcom actually broke the contract, wouldn't Nintendo lawyers hunt them down?

As pissed as I am now, Chen's got a point: If Capcom did something illegal, NCL would be all over this. I for one, refuse to believe that NCL got blindsided. I'd like think the imaginary conversation would go like this:

Capcom: Hey NCL, this Capcom.

NCL: Hey what's crackin' C? How's the RE 4 coming?

Capcom: See that's the thing. It'll be ready on schedule, though I'm letting you know once our contract is up, its going to PS2.  Gotta spread the love, ya dig?

NCL: Yeah, I dig. Hey, let me buy Mikami a saw for his head. That old dog...

Capcom: Hehe, yeah well, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Gotta run. peace.

NCL: Alright. Don't forget about Minish cap. We're coming over to sure its up to snuff..

Ice Cube's track "No Vasoline" would be an excellent theme for Nintendo.  I'll give you a wild guess what he's talking about...

[VideoGamerJ]

That's absurd! They would never talk like that. I would think that Nintendo is so busy with everything else that they let that slip by. How, I'd like to know...

This really is a huge disapointment, I only ask for a reasonable explanation and Nintendo's reaction. As long as Zelda makes it to the cube before 2006, I'm happy.

[Hostile Creation]

Good conversation, Djunknown

[Darc Requiem]

I'm surprised by all the Mikami hatred. This obviously came from higher up. In the last few years Capcom has lost a few top producers because of them butting heads with management. Besides this is all a moot point anyway. If this were a SNES vs. Genesis situation from the early 90s it would be major. In the US at least Nintendo and Sega were in a dead heat. The GC is third place worldwide and its not going to catch X-box. In the US the X-box is outselling the PS2 the GC isn't even in the equation. Nintendo is going to do all it can to provide content until the Revolution arrives. Nintendo made some blunders, MS took advantage and here we are. We can only hope that "perceived" aggressive streak Nintendo is on with DS continues and carrys on to all there future products. I'm still a big Capcom fan and I'm still gonna by RE4.

I have my DS reserved. That stated as big of a Nintendo fan as I am. I can see the writing on the wall. No I'm not talking about Nintendo going belly up. I'm talking about not being factor. Outside of the portable market Nintendo has no mindshare. Its always do you have a PS2 or X-box. Articles talking about the gaming market only mention Nintendo in passing if at all. Although the PS2 is well in front, right the X-box has the most mindshare. This will help them in the next generation. Nintendo has virtually no mindshare and what little it does have is negative. Looking at the situation we should be glad that Capcom has done what it has. Capcom isn't going to do what it did with Dreamcast. They hedged there bets a bit with GC, saw similar trends and made the decision that best suited them. Given the predicament that Japanese developers are in, Capcom has to do what it can to survive. With Western developers dominating the market, having your bread and butter franchise on the 3rd place console isn't going to help your standing.

I'm hardly some expert and won't pretend to be. Nintendo know what to do and honestly I never thought I'd say this but the PSP maybe the best thing to happen to Nintendo. They can't afford to be conservative while they ranking dough from the portable market. They have to be aggressive. Now the Nintendo that has been running its portable division will be running the whole company. The portable side of Nintendo always had that killer instinct....seemed to take pride in the number of competitor they could destroy. Now they seem to be even more aggressive. Thats makes me happy. Sony and its PSP have seemed to wake the sleeping giant. All I can say is that its about damned time.

Darc Requiem

[The Omen]

Okay, bottom line is this- the timing of the announcement was made specifically for Sony.  How else to explain it?  I can just see Sony execs sitting back laughing as they stole the GCs thunder.

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We were also told the Capcom 5 were only for the GC. Then it was 4, then 3, now it's one!
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Technically P.N. 03 is still exclusive. This happened a long time ago and Capcom is now struggling. It's a business trying to survive the harsh world of big corporations. Try to understand that.

I said one game was still exclusive.

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It virtually assures that people will wait for their PS2 version, which will be enhanced, no doubt.
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And why are you so sure about that?

I'm talking PS2 owners who may have said, "you know what, that RE4 looks incredible.  I might have to pick up a Gc and RE4."  I can easily state with conviction that won't happen at all now.  As for me thinking the PS2 version will be enhanced, its easy to imagine since it will look inferior on the PS2, they'll add bonus levels and unlockables.  Maybe online, who knows.  But they will have additions, I promise you that.

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Exclusive doesnt really mean it wont be released on any other system. Splinter Cell was exclusive to X-box, for about 4 months.

When someone can tell me how it is beneficial to Capcom to announce this now, I'll agree.  But this completely knocks the legs out from the Nintendo version.  At least wait until its released.  I can't stress enough how ridiculous it is.

[Rage2Wrath]

The GC is third place worldwide and its not going to catch X-box.

-Thats not true, X-box doesn't have any sort if marketshare here in Japan. They sell like 500 X-Boxs a month in this country. And Japan is the 2nd biggest game market in the world.

In the US the X-box is outselling the PS2 the GC isn't even in the equation.

-I find that hard to beleive, just because it may sell better than the 2 other systems for a month, doesn't make it the dominant system. And besides GCN can and do sell better than PS2 or X-Box games, Vietiful Joe, Godzilla, Soul Caliber...

[PlatinumKnight]

It all comes down to this:

Capcom decided that Money was more important than Values/Ethics/Morales/Ones Word/ ect.

They sold out plain and simple!

If Mega Man X series and the Resident Evil Series where not my most favorite series of all time I would never consider buying a Capcom game EVER again.

RE4 is my most anticapted game in my 21 years on this planet. If it wasnt for that I wouldn't buy it.

I have RE0, RE1, RE2 on N64, Mega Man X on Snes. All the games I own are either Nintendo First Party/ Exlusive, EA Sports or Capcom games.

And Benjudd spare me this:
"Lets escape from reality into a morally perfect utopia where none of us lie and we are all perfect beings..."

Talk about PR Spin! Is this supposed to be an excuse. So the world is full of lairs so that supposed to make it okay. What's the saying "If everyone jumps off a bridge......"

I will buy this game the day it is released, but I will be mad when the PS2 version gets all the bonus material and all the cool extras.

I refuse to buy a non Nintendo console. I got every one Nintendo ever made except Virtual Boy. See Nintendo fans are smart. I'm a hardcore RE fan but im not paying $39.99 for a several year old port of RE2 OR RE3. They where supposed to be $19.99 yet another Capcom lie.....

Product Number 2 was just garbage, and Capcom is mad we didnt buy it. Viewtiful Joe sold well and what does Capcom do, port it over to PS2 and make the sequel multiplatform. Its a lose lose for Nintendo.

Ask yourself this:
Is Capcom more interested in making Great, Highly Rated games, Critcally Acclaimed games, that garner mediacore sales, or releasing a crappy "Mature" game that that goes quadruple platinum and makes them Millions of dollars.

The power of the allmighty yen.....
Money is definatley the root of all evil......

[The Omen]

The root of all Resident Evil, that is.

[soundwave5]

I think you guys are getting a bit too overdramatic about this.

It's not like Nintendo is exactly holding up their end of this bargain. Back in 2001, when Capcom signed the deal with Nintendo, Iwata was saying there'd be
50 million GameCubes sold.

Nintendo will be lucky to end up with 25 million sold total by the end of the generation. They themselves haven't done a very good job in selling the platform to consumers, Capcom can only do so much. I don't think Capcom signed on to "sacrifice" their top franchise solely for Nintendo's sake.

Nintendo just has no sway with 15-30 year old consumers aside from the hardcore Nintendo set. Maybe Capcom shouldn't have been naive enough to sign the deal in the first place knowing that, but they probably thought Nintendo would do a helluva lot more in terms of content and marketing in helping them get such an audience.

Obviously things haven't really worked out. I don't expect Nintendo to convince many third parties to offer up such big exclusives in the future either. Capcom isn't the only one, Namco ported Tales of Symphonia to the PS2, Sega has ported Monkey Ball, and originally Virtua Fighter Quest was supposed to be GCN-only.  

Capcom's had a rough few financial quarters, they have their own bills to pay. Nintendo probably understands that, and what difference does it make anyway? Chances are there weren't going to be a ton of PS2 owners buying a GC solely for this game. One game is still only one game, there's not enough titles like RE4 on the GCN to get people to move over en masse (and this is not Capcom's fault). GameCube still gets the title first and will probably have the better looking version of the game.  

And of course Capcom is interested in making money. So is Nintendo. Making games like Resident Evil 4 isn't cheap and it takes years of development to make a game like that, if I was a developer on such a title, it would absolutely kill me to put so much effort into a game and then watch it get ignored by most of the market. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a game to sell well.  

BTW: According to IGN it was NINTENDO that forced Capcom to raise the price of RE2/RE3. Capcom wanted to sell them at $19.99, but Nintendo wouldn't give them a break on the licensing fees.  

[CHEN]

Well, technically, Tales of Symphonia is still exclusive here. There hasn't been an announcement to release it here on the PS2 and I don't think it'll happen soon either since Nintendo and Namco co-localized it. And knowing Namco, they're very reluctant to release it all by themselves seeing how bad the Tales of... series have done here.

But to be on-topic again, yeah, it's really bad timing. But saying Mikami and the director should get their heads cut off for lying to us is a bit too far. They're not responsible for this and knowing Mikami he would have stayed by his word, but the head of Capcom decided to port RE4 for more money. And knowing what Capcom did with the Resident Evil series in the past, who didn't saw this coming eventually? A bit too soon I admit. Now just enjoy RE4, dammit.

And this is aimed towards soundwave, the financial results tell us that the PS2 division did badly. Breath of Fire, Chaos Legion, Devil May Cry 2, Gregory Horror Show, Maximo, Onimusha, Resident Evil Outbreak, Street Fighter Another Edition, Viewtiful Joe didn't sell too well on the top of my head. This isn't all Nintendo's fault, it's also the fault of Capcom's internal divisions for developing mediocre games.

[Segnit BGS]

[Two things really]

Number 1: There are too many "I will follow you to death, my Nintendo!" type people here. Too many blind fanboys of age 15 or lower. Everyone who is older and more mature, please bare that in mind! Nobody wants to be caught with their pants down arguing with a 15 year old, mommy’s boy.

And Number 2: Like some people have suggested already, the reality of life and true logic dictates that this is the incompetence of Nintendo and not Capcom. Capcom did indeed kick Nintendo in the nuts, yes! But Nintendo saw the kick coming from miles away and they did nothing. It’s a company’s job to kick people in the nuts for cash. Nintendo does it to us and Capcom does it to Nintendo. Facts of life!

[End of two things to consider]

If some of the following apply to you then, I feel your frustration.
-      I bought the Gamecube with the promise of innovative gameplay.
-      In addition to innovative software I expected Perfect Dark from Rare
-      Likewise I am a Jet Force Gemini fan.
-      I expected an excellent follow up to Turok.
-      I expected an excellent follow up to F1 world grand prix or World Driver Championship.
-      I expected an excellent Soccerl sim from Konami (Like the time on the N64).
-      I expected Resident Evil.
-      I expected an excellent Zelda.

Now some of what I wanted did happen but most did not. Some were up to Nintendo and some weren’t (such as Turok).In case you were wondering, I never got the excellent Zelda i was waiting for on the cube; I only got a very good one.

See? See? I got kicked in the nuts by Nintendo. Gamecube is the only specialized videogames console right? Nintendo is the only specialized videogames company right? Then how comes non specialized videogames consoles have games like, oh I don’t know, from the top of my head now ICO, Gran Tourismo #, Pro Evolution (aka Winning Eleven) #, Final Fantasy #, Halo #, Morrowind, Links Golf, Ratchet and Clank #, GTA #, Burnout 3, Virtua Tennis, F1 2004+, WRC,  Silent Hill, Katamari Damancy, MGS 2/3... Noticed what i was missing? See? Nintendo just kicked me in the nuts again. But hey, I love Nintendo and I am still loyal ...DMC, Ace Combat, Ridick, Ninja Gaiden... Not again? There goes my nuts!

Dear Iwata/Yaumuchi, is that a way of treating a loyal and a paying customer(s)? Where is your PR people? Oh i forgot... you don't have one! or you do? I am confused.

Nintendo, i can't thank you enough for Prime, It was an amazing experince. Again, many thanks. Thank you also for Eternal Darkness. Thank you for cooperating with Namco on ToS and BK. Thank you for your cooperation with Capcom, RE: Remake was oozing with atmosphere and no doubt RE 4 will be amazing too. But hey I just realized something; I can count all those positives using one hand and the great thing is… I’ll have two fingers left free! One for picking my nose and another to put in my mouth.

Nintendo, i'll follow your theme of inconstructive and confusing structure by adding in a paragraph that has nothing to do with the previous or next. I just wanna say that ofcoarse you can't have Halo on GC, nor Gran Tourismo, nor ICO and not even Ratchet and Clank. WHy not? Well if you haven't guessed already (yeah right!), those companies belong either to Sony or Microsoft. But these games carry a significant fanbase, some more then others. Not only that, but all of the companies responsible for the above exceptional games have less industry experience then Nintendo and yet look at quality of them. Bungie being the crown jewel of Microsfot and PD being the crown jewel of Sony. We didn't even mention Rare.

First you get $375 million by selling Rare without making up for it. Then you just stop cooperating with Silicon Knights without making up for it. And now you lost the 100% exclusivity of a mega budget triple A game? Sure it’s a time exclusive but that’s not the point now is it? Otherwise… why would Capcom need to announce the existence of RE 4 on the Playstation 2 now? You kicked my nuts again Nintendo. You kicked them many times. Now if I oly knew how easy it was for other mid sized companies to kick your giant corporate nuts then I wouldn’t have let you kick my nuts to begin with. See? You even failed to deliver on your nut kicking policy. But hey I won’t ever deny that you’re a great company, or used to be. Although I won’t let you kick my nuts again, there are a whole lot of good people who still have faith in you. For the sake of your few remaining fans, please get your act together.

One last thing... for all you short sighted people who are predicting that Nintendo will die because of this then just... well... oh well... I disagree. Nintendo is too stable financially, making hundreds of millions of net profit every year. Nintendo isn't going down. They are just slowly slowly retreating into a cave on the console front.  We can all comfortably assume that Nintendo aren't the forerunners in this generation of consoles with the gamecube.

By the way Ian Sane, what you say most of the time is dead on! You are my most respected PGC forumer. But i don't think taking an absolute negative tone is the correct approach to this piece of news.  After all we should at least be happy that more people will play the game. But still, it's a crying shame for the lies that Cubers have have had to put up with.

P.S. Nintendo did see this coming.

P.S.S If i had a third finger free, we all know where i could put it

[CHEN]

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Now some of what I wanted did happen but most did not. Some were up to Nintendo and some weren’t (such as Turok).In case you were wondering, I never got the excellent Zelda i was waiting for on the cube; I only got a very good one.

See? See? I got kicked in the nuts by Nintendo. Gamecube is the only specialized videogames console right? Nintendo is the only specialized videogames company right? Then how comes non specialized videogames consoles have games like, oh I don’t know, from the top of my head now ICO, Gran Tourismo #, Pro Evolution (aka Winning Eleven) #, Final Fantasy #, Halo #, Morrowind, Links Golf, Ratchet and Clank #, GTA #, Burnout 3, Virtua Tennis, F1 2004+, WRC,  Silent Hill, Katamari Damancy, MGS 2/3... Noticed what i was missing? See? Nintendo just kicked me in the nuts again. But hey, I love Nintendo and I am still loyal ...DMC, Ace Combat, Ridick, Ninja Gaiden... Not again? There goes my nuts!

You have some good points, but this is stupid.

And frankly, I don't see many "I will follow you to the death" people here. I notice more negativity towards Nintendo and I can understand that. Do what you want I guess, but this is going a bit over the top in my opinion.  

[Bill Aurion]

"In case you were wondering, I never got the excellent Zelda i was waiting for on the cube; I only got a very good one.

See? See? I got kicked in the nuts by Nintendo."

Oh you poor baby...Here's your bottle...You sound like a little kid rattling off everything he didn't get for Christmas...

[CHEN]

Bill is here to save the day.

[Ian Sane]

Now that I've had some time to calm down and think a little bit more rationally I've thought of a game that was in a similar situation to Resident Evil 4 and yet still was a strong killer app for the console it debuted on: Splinter Cell.  Despite the fact that it was public knowledge that Splinter Cell was only a timed exclusive for the Xbox and would be brought to the PS2 (I don't remember if the Cube port was annouced at the time) Splinter Cell still was a huge success for the Xbox.  It outsold Metroid Prime and helped MS beat Nintendo in the 2002 Christmas season.  One could argue that the Xbox's success in North America is largely thanks to their strong late 2002 sales.

RE4 obviously doesn't have quite the same situation.  In 2002 people were looking for a reason to buy an Xbox but in 2005 people are looking for an excuse not to buy a Cube.  The Xbox had a postive buzz when Splinter Cell was released which is a luxury the Cube doesn't really have.  Plus Splinter Cell's sales were also helped by the incredibly successful Xbox Sega bundle that was released that year.  However like Splinter Cell, RE4 is going to debut on one console a significant time period before it's released on another and like Splinter Cell it's pretty much a given that the original is going to have the best graphics.

I still think that announcing the port before the Cube version was released is going to steal some of the Cube version's thunder and the timing of the announcement was likely "suggested" by Sony.  I still think it's going to lose some Cube sales.  But it might be okay if Nintendo markets it well (that's a dreaded "if") and builds up a lot of hype for it.  If Nintendo just acts as if it is exclusive they might be okay.

Still this is a negative piece of news overall.  How Nintendo handles it is going to have a large effect on how they're seen by their fans and the general gaming public.