Capcom Survey!

[Carnivol]

Ask Scream about it, I think he attended some of the events in the UK. Iirc, it was the Sony Entertainment Tour (or whatever they called it) that did the "tour" in coordination with Nordic film when they demoed Outbreak File #2 in Scandinavia.

[The_15th]

Fun fact for newcomers;
Before Outbreak launched, Capcom was demoing it at various events ... in 4 player setups ... with 4x PS2s hooked up to a hub hooked up to a laptop running the server software. Outbreak File 2 was also demoed like this in Europe pre-launch. Getting that server software would've been ... sweet (Remember me and Scream talked a lot about it - think we talked more of it than we ever "looked" or "hunted" though XD)

I didn't know that for sure. If you could let me know if you have any proof or leads on this, it would be great. I might add an entry about it if I ever bring back my outrbeakfanclub.com site. (I still own the url, just not hosting it for now).

To be honest, upscaled through an emulator Outbreak still looks pretty great. It would benefit from like you say widescreen support. The loading times weren't too bad if you installed the game, however.

It looks terrific to me. I don't recall what my settings were, but something along at least 4X AA filter or something. I used to set it at 16 but maybe it changes not much past some threshold.

[jomino]

You didn't get what I was trying to say. Link the message to the video, and try again



Biohazard Gun Survivor fans, they do exist and they're more violent than Outbreak fans
EDIT: Also, misspelled my message. Yay?

Lol, that is exactly what I put, except for the part about gun survivor.

[Carnivol]

BF1943 "needed" dedicated servers.

Outbreak can easily be player side hosted. Nothing that requires dedicated hosting for it in this day and age. Only reason it relied on servers on the PS2 was because of the technical limitations of the PS2 itself (and, well, somewhat 'cause of how the game handles rooms too), the lacking online structure of the PS2 was a bottle neck regardless, and the fact that the PS2 itself couldn't, in the case of Outbreak, have handled both hosting of the game and playing at the same time (although they could've surely made a dedicated server solution back then too + the game does keep track of a lot of geometry and "action" going on outside the your current room and what not).

Fun fact for newcomers;
Before Outbreak launched, Capcom was demoing it at various events ... in 4 player setups ... with 4x PS2s hooked up to a hub hooked up to a laptop running the server software. Outbreak File 2 was also demoed like this in Europe pre-launch. Getting that server software would've been ... sweet (Remember me and Scream talked a lot about it - think we talked more of it than we ever "looked" or "hunted" though XD)

The curious thing about it all, of course, would be if it'd be easiest to port Outbreak itself to new hardware, or to just partially merge it with MT Framework - like they did with Code: Veronica HD.

[Dracarys]

I'm not sure Outbreak ports/HD remakes are financially viable. Unless can get the game to run with P2P hosting then dedicated servers will probaby push the cost to maintain it way too high, unless they do a repeat of the originals and shut them down after a couple years which I doubt Capcom will want to do. To the best of my knowledge the only PSN/XBLA game that uses dedicated servers is BF1943, and I remember a dev comment that said the company will probably take a loss on it but that it was great promotion for the BF series main games, and it was. BF1943 broke digital sales records too, not sure outbreak ports could do that.

[Carnivol]

In other words you can't make a leading statement like that after all these years and not say more. So I ask for more info. Spill if you can

Basically, we caught word of regional publisher/distributorion arms of Capcom titles suddenly having something like "Resident Evil - Double/Deluxe Package cont. Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero" listed as a TBA PS2 release in their next fiscal year. So, we did a bit of research on a few fronts, asked some questions and all the boring yadda yadda, and we basically had two different, unrelated, sources with the same reports and we got both of them to "check their facts" ('cause specific regions were at the time also scheduled to get a double pack offer for the GameCube), but for some reason ... both double checks came back positive (as in; this was an actual product in the pipeline as a TBA release for next fiscal year.)

Now, before anyone shouts "PROBABLY JUST A TYPO", "REGIONAL PUBLISHERS =/= CAPCOM JAPAN" or "MARKETING IDIOTS"; do note that we're not talking public release lists here or anything even remotely similar. We're talking internal budgetary lists. The very core of a publisher/distributor. The guide they have to plan their release strategy by, their translation needs, their scheduling for pretty much anything hiring/firing related for temps, the checklist they have to order things by, the product listing they need to make money and plan ahead how to spend their money and where to put marketing focus and when to do it and so forth. Typos are like multi-million mistakes that can sink an entire company.

Despite the severity of mis-grouped entries on such a list, it's not uncommon that a few TBAs get cancelled (or postponed into the next fiscal year), but after double-checking these, even sitting on it for an entire quarter to wait for the next quarterly update (fresh release dates and what not for everything) to show up, and more or less getting another confirmation from all sources that this was indeed "not a typo", we decided to run with it and put up a teaser, assuming it'd be something we'd see an announcement for not too far down the line.

Sadly enough, it never happened. Why it never materialized? Beats me. Maybe it was just something planned that never fit into a schedule, found itself a budget or didn't materialize for other reasons. Maybe they had their hands full with early next-gen development at the time? Maybe it was just a typo that somehow survived multiple reviews and direct inquires about its validity? Who knows? It ultimately disappeared ... nearly half-a-year after we posted our teaser shot of the RE0 cast holding DUALSHOCKs.

[Rombie]

Time to break out the good ol' Japanese honor and what-not.

(actually, someone might remember a certain thing our news section was hinting about back in 2005~2006 or something ... I find it funny that people haven't just asked what the thing was there - although I think we might've tuched briefly upon it in one of the last podcasts)

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

In other words you can't make a leading statement like that after all these years and not say more. So I ask for more info. Spill if you can

[yurieu]

isnt haunting ground on psn already?

not porting outbreak may be laziness of fixing bugs that they must fix to comply the right standards.

[Carnivol]

Yeah. I still don't get why Outbreak hasn't been revived as a downloadable title w/DLC plan in the form of additional scenarios and characters. It's a microtransaction goldmine if they can sell the gameplay.

While it was one of the most "obvious" titles I thought of when DLC started to become a "thing", the time when the THIA staff replayed Outbreak with a Skype chat going ... the game became suddenly not only playable online, but it was also infinitely extra awesome-sauce too. And the funny thing is; a title like that ... could so easily live on for a small eternity on a digital platform - and the benefits (on both sides) it could get from DLC/microtransactions are just too obvious. There are just straight out game changers in just minor things like new characters (new abilities), but stuff like extra levels, alternate enemy/event layouts, extra challenges, leaderboards, etc. Theme based levels designed around recycling of assets from other RE games, etc.. Poorly whipped together scenarios, with rushed translations, and various ideas and concepts that'd make poor News Bot explode

[[STARS]TyranT]

To be honest, upscaled through an emulator Outbreak still looks pretty great. It would benefit from like you say widescreen support. The loading times weren't too bad if you installed the game, however.

[yurieu]

I put in comments that Resident Evil Outbreak is screaming out for a digital release with full online support since many of us never had the opportunity to play it online.

of course they should make a little remaster, like 4 and CV. it need a better framerate and who knows... wider resolution? not to mention the load times.

or forget everything i said, just improve the load times. and bring it for pc, too.

[[STARS]TyranT]

I put in comments that Resident Evil Outbreak is screaming out for a digital release with full online support since many of us never had the opportunity to play it online.

[Deus Flux]

Wow 2 questions.

1) Where do you live
2) Do you plan on using digital distribution services? (I answered no)
THE END

Haha, same here. I don't buy 'full' digital games (only some dlc on rare occasion and I hate even doing that); not now, not ever. Only buy retail. Heck, even if 1.5 was officially released, and it wasn't a physical copy I wouldn't buy it. Suck it, Capcom. No retail, no money from me.

Edit: I'd love to have retail copies of REmake and RE0 for the 3DS.

[Carnivol]

Time to break out the good ol' Japanese honor and what-not.

(actually, someone might remember a certain thing our news section was hinting about back in 2005~2006 or something ... I find it funny that people haven't just asked what the thing was there - although I think we might've tuched briefly upon it in one of the last podcasts)

[Mrox2]

They weren't formally part of the agreement, but if I remember correctly Nintendo did invest tons of money on REmake and Zero, which is why so far CAPCOM could never port them to anything but the Wii.

Sven said there is no license issues with REmake and Zero though , and that they could be easily ported but there are no plans for that now ;(

I pretty much voted wont buy RE 4 5 6, Will Buy RE 1 2 3 etc. I also put a message saying release Outbreak File 3 or Re-release the first two with PSN and Xbox Live support.

Exactly just as I said.