Resident Evil series exclusive for GameCube

TOKYO - Capcom held a press conference in Tokyo today and announced that it will release the Biohazard (Resident Evil in North America) series exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. The company will first release a remake version of Biohazard [released on the PlayStation in 1996] on March 22 of next year. It will be followed by the release of Biohazard 0, and then remake versions of Biohazard 2, Biohazard 3, Biohazard Code:Veronica, and finally leading up to the anticipated Biohazard 4.

Shinji Mikami, creator of the series, appeared on stage and said that he will take helm as director [first time in 5 years] for the remake version of Biohazard. He then proceeded to show different scenes from the game. Though he did not elaborate, it's at least known that scenes such as the forest and the room with the fan [using light and shadows like Doom 3] uses a prerendered CG as background, while the characters are displayed on-screen in real-time 3D polygons. Mikami mentioned that the forest scene was made possible with the help of Nintendo. He then commented on the exclusivity. "We have released the series across different platforms, and it felt a bit unfair to the consumers, so we decided to focus the release on one console," Mikami said.

Shigeru Miyamoto also made a surprise appearance supporting Mikami, saying they both share the same ideals in viewing game development as an evolving and challenging craft. He added that porting games onto other consoles have hampered the time and effort in improving development skills for future titles, thus companies should concentrate its development on one console.

The Biohazard series will now be released exclusively on the GameCube console, and will not make appearances on other consoles. Gamespot will keep you posted with the latest.