RESIDENT EVIL 5 RELEASED BY MARCH 2008?
Capcom's president hints at a possible timetable. — We haven't heard anything about Resident Evil 5 since Capcom originally announced the game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Who knows if the company will take the wraps off …
Context & Ripple Effects
Capcom has been unusually visible this spring: at its April press event it laid out a 2007 line-up spanning Phoenix Wright, Mega Man DS, Super Puzzle Fighter II on Xbox Live Arcade, and Harvey Birdman, alongside a confirmed push to expand its Western presence. Against that backdrop, the president's reported hint that Resident Evil 5 — announced for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 but unseen since — could land by March 2008 reads less like a stray comment and more like a scheduling signal.
The claim itself is unconfirmed: no release date has been formally set, and the report rests on a single executive remark rather than an announcement. Even so, a March 2008 window would place Capcom's biggest next-generation title inside the current console cycle's install-base buildout, which is why the hint matters to both platform holders.
First-order effects
- If the March 2008 window holds, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 each gain a headline multiplatform release during the critical early years of this console generation, when both Sony and Microsoft are competing for software that moves hardware.
Second-order effects
- Sony and Microsoft face pressure to court Capcom with marketing support or exclusivity incentives for a franchise of Resident Evil's weight, since a simultaneous multiplatform launch denies either side a system-seller.
Third-order effects
- A tight announcement-to-release cadence on a flagship title would fit Capcom's broader Western expansion, pointing toward Japanese publishers timing tentpole releases around global — not Japan-first — schedules.
The trend: Japanese publishers like Capcom are shifting flagship franchises toward synchronized worldwide releases timed to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 install-base race.