Capcom: Resident Evil Portable Not a Port

It didn’t get a ton of attention at E3, but Capcom’s “secret game” turned out to be none other than a PSP Resident Evil game, announced during Sony’s press conference.  Ironically enough, this was my first guess.  In any case, the announcement of a PSP Resident Evil game, while not entirely surprising, was also not particularly detailed.  Sony’s Jack Tretton announced the game, showed off a static image of Raccoon City flooded by zombies (yes, original zombies, it appears) and the title Resident Evil Portable.  That’s it.  No release date, no screenshots, no trailer, nothing.  The vagueness of the announcement might lead one to believe that the game will simply be a port or a remake of the original Resident Evil or one of its PS1 compatriots.  Not so, says Capcom.

In a post on his personal Capcom Unity blog, Capcom producer Chris Kramer announced that the game is “not a “remake” of a previous RE game, but an all-new title created specifically for the PSP platform”, and that it’s being produced specifically with the PSP Go in mind.  Considering this, it could mean that Capcom has chosen to forego an UMD release entirely and launch solely on the PSP Go, thus eliminating the disc space restrictions of the UMD format.

Kramer then goes on to state that he has seen preliminary design documents of the new PSP zombie-slayer, and that it’s “totally different for a Resident Evil game”.  Not much else is given on the title, but considering the popularity of multiplayer co-op in Japanese PSP games, I would not be surprised in the slightest to see some form of multiplayer mode in Resident Evil Portable when it launches.  In any case, those worried about the possibility of Capcom simply printing a Resident Evil PS1 ROM to a UMD and tossing it out into retail should definitely breathe a sigh of relief; Capcom’s got us covered.

Source: Capcom Unity