RE 5's Kawata: Wii couldn't even handle RE 5's intro screen
by David Hinkle 
{ Oct 24th 2008 at 5:11PM }
We all would love to see Resident Evil 5 on the Wii. But, according to the game's producer, Masachika Kawata, the Wii couldn't even handle the graphics of the game's introductory screen. When asked about improvements on the game from 4 to 5, Kawata mentions the biggest improvement are the graphics, as "the title screen of this couldn't have been done on PS2 or Wii." We're not sure we buy that.There's still a sliver of hope that there could be more Resident Evil making its way to Wii, however. During a separate interview with GameTrailers, another producer, Juntake Uchi, commented that Capcom would love to continue to support the Wii with the franchise. And, personally, we'd love to see them hook us up with something other than old ports.
Head past the break to watch the video.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Remix @ Oct 24th 2008 5:19PM
Aren't the cutscenes and titlescreens basically just playing a... video? I buy that the in game graphics couldn't be done on a Wii but the intro vids n such I'm sure could be played on anything that plays dvds.
JK @ Oct 24th 2008 7:00PM
Actually, a lot of PS3/360 games now run title screens and cutscenes in realtime, using the in-game engine, rather than splash screens or pre-rendered videos now. The Wii does this too, with your Miis running around, etc.
Dan @ Nov 6th 2008 9:15AM
The wii can't play dvds...
Remix @ Nov 6th 2008 4:38PM
The wii uses dvd format and my wii does play dvds :)
TWOO DEE @ Oct 24th 2008 5:36PM
ouch, bastard!
Patrick @ Oct 24th 2008 5:56PM
Kawata-san must think we're idiots, Wii owners or anyone else. No shit the Wii can't handle graphics designed for the 360 or PS3. I think the people who are asking for a Wii port of RE5 would be happy with RE5 gameplay and RE4 graphics, something which is surely within the realm of technical possibility. If Kawata in fact stated what he did, it's just a lame-ass cop-out.
Erik Stroud @ Oct 24th 2008 9:11PM
The thing is, if devs start tailoring to the Wiis lower specs, then Nintendo won't be as willing to catch up with other consoles. I like the wii, but lower specs for the price it is makes it my least favorite of the current consoles.
Garst @ Oct 27th 2008 1:03AM
Whether, a game is first release for the Wii or Playstation 3 isn't likely to influence what Nintendo puts in its next console. The only thing that should push specs higher is the response from consumers of the final product. Why put money into development that players don't care about? While I can't argue with you that Nintendo didn't beef up the Wii enough, it's not like you can agrue that Sony went too high with its specs. In the end all that really matters is return on investment. If you don't spend enough on development, your product will die out too soon. If you spend too much, then you might not see high enough return to justify the higher cost in development.
I'm more willing to bet why Capcom said the Wii couldn't handle the game is because it is a plausible reason for it not being release on the Wii initially. However, it's more plausible that Sony paid Capcom BIG after the GameCube got first run with RE4. Don't try to argue against that; we both know backroom deals happen all the time. They're not illegal, that mostly why I think that's a more plausible reason.
JB @ Dec 22nd 2008 8:30PM
I know!!!!
I just want resident evil 5 for my wii, I like the better aiming controls! I don't mind RE4 graphics, they're pretty good.
the2bears @ Oct 24th 2008 6:02PM
Seems to me the problem is with RE 5 then, and Capcom.
KaBob799 @ Oct 24th 2008 6:03PM
So basically he's saying that lowering the graphics quality is too much work.
D dogg @ Oct 24th 2008 6:16PM
Hi, I'll speak on behalf of the man in discussion...
"The Wii can't handle the current iteration of RE5. In order for us to make it run on the Wii, we'd have to completely overhaul the graphics engine. We had RE4 for the original Gamecube and since the Wii is 2 Gamecubes ducktapped together, we only had to configure the game to run in widescreen as well as map the controls to a remote control.
As for RE5 though, we'd have to do major work to make it run on the Wii and in terms of cost, we at Capcom understand that while millions of Wii's are in households and still selling, only a handful of those owners play anything other than Wii Sports.
Having said all that, I think it's obvious that as a company that's in business to make money, we'd rather not spend more money than we could make back.
Thank you very much and I hope you all have a great weekend."
red13 @ Oct 24th 2008 6:34PM
Very nicely put!
Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Oct 25th 2008 7:23AM
Had they actually tried to make games which are not retarded, feature lackluster utility and strictly scripted gameplay, I'm sure many people would have set their WiiSports aside.
It is kind of frustrating that hardcore gamers and console game developers are literally living in basement and keep on with games which provide you with the same "authentic" experience of 2D-sprited 4-bit games from 20 years ago.
Casual market now is much more advanced than many like to admit. PC and mobile gaming is far far ahead of everything any console gaming has to offer - and mostly far ahead in sense of business plan. Now on PC and phones one can play *new* game every week (or day) and many people gladly pay for something new and original. Even if fun lasts for one hour - if price is right (something consoles could never manage) - people would pay it.
The point is that casual market is saturated - with lots of cheap games (PC, phones, Flash games on Web). It is not that people do not want to buy console games. Specifics of casual market is that the people do not want to sit before TV days through - like most console games mandate - they want to (and often can only) play on their own conditions. They do not want to restrain themselves to basements (and give up real life) just for games.
Hamster @ Oct 25th 2008 7:54AM
How many gamers do you know who play games in their basements Ihar? I imagine it's none. But nice try anyway.
Bowser the Baptist @ Oct 25th 2008 9:28AM
I play games in a basement, my mother's basement. In fact, it's a basement lodged underneath another basement: a basebasement. Victory is mine.
I agree with Ihar. Mobile gaming is so much more fulfilling than any of the tosh on the big three consoles. Nintenknights scream and shout for another Zelda or Mario, but it's just meaningless fan service. You people are so attached to your childhood icons that you struggle to see how tired each and everyone of them are.
Look at the last Zelda game: Twilight Princess. That has got to be the most redundant, overhyped piece of shit I've ever played. It was like going back to the N64 all over again, but with an uglier colour palette. Over zealous Nintendo fanbois destroyed whatever confidence Anouma had in the Windwaker, an astonishingly beautiful game, and we got served a turd.
If you compare TWEWY, yes a RPG but useful for wanton comparison, to TP and there's no contest. TWEWY feels like the freshest spring day, while TP is a shit. TWEWY went on to sell well proving that the handheld market is a viable market, especially when compared to the blandness of what's on offer via the big three.
Evan @ Oct 25th 2008 11:37AM
Some of the most technically advanced games are for the Wii and DS. The DS does hand-writing recognition! That's PhD level mathematics, running on a little low-powered hand-held. Meanwhile most PS3 and 360 games are using AI algorithms from the stone-ages. The power of the system has nothing to do with how advanced a game is, only how many polygons it can render.
D dogg @ Oct 25th 2008 12:25PM
@ Evan:
You're either: 1) a Fanboy 2) Ignorant or 3) Intentionally insulting everyones intelligence on this blog.
First off, the DS's processing power, in a handheld, rivals desktop PC's almost from a decade ago... seriously!
Second off, handwriting recognition is about MATHEMATICAL formulas, something ANY current device with processing power should be able to easily do (remember, software is about COMPUTATION).
Lastly, to say that the formulas required to compute handwriting recognition are significantly more advanced than say, Bungies code to give their NPC's artificial intelligence is just plain IGNORANT. It proves you have NO CLUE what the f**k you're saying.
Having said that, I don't care WHO you agree with, you're not intelligent or wise enough to actually participate in this discussion.
Extinction @ Oct 26th 2008 3:30PM
Handwriting recognition does not take a PhD. I've written HWR myself and I'm only a college graduate. The DS is a piece of crap though.
Mr Khan @ Oct 24th 2008 6:33PM
Come on, flame bait?
Wii fanboy is better than this, that's why i love you guys
nilsen.greg @ Oct 24th 2008 6:52PM
Who cares? Resident Evil sucks anyway!
TheOverlord#2 @ Oct 24th 2008 7:17PM
I'm guessing you haven't played RE 4.
Santos L. Halper @ Oct 24th 2008 7:43PM
RE4:wii edition and umbrella chronicles are both million sellers so if Capcom doesn't want to put RE5 on wii, then they're hurting themselves. Even if it'll cost a lot to make a wii version they'd still be making a profit. If a port and a spin-off sold over a million then imagine how well a new RE game will sell.
ChibiKawase @ Oct 24th 2008 8:21PM
RE5 isn't Dead Rising. It wouldn't be hard to translate the core of RE5-- gameplay and story.
Triptych @ Oct 24th 2008 8:36PM
RE5 is too buff for the Wii. RE5 has to get to the gym in 26 minutes.
Daryl @ Oct 24th 2008 8:45PM
As wii gamers, we endorse gameplay over graphics. A game from the ground up could always be made that is similar but focuses more on motion controls.
If it's really that demanding, the PS3 should perform better than the 360. If they perform equally, then I'm inclined to believe it is not as demanding as they say.
The most demanding games like Oblivion and Metal Gear Solid 4 can only run on the PS3 or run better on the PS3. The ones that run equally on both are likely only moderately graphically demanding, and probably within the range of wii capabilities with a few tweaks.
Evan @ Oct 25th 2008 11:58AM
Certainly the PS3 *should* be capable of better games than the Wii. PS3 hardware is capable of superior AI, better character-environment interaction, voice recognition. However most PS3 games have just been PS2 games with upgraded graphics. All the extra power has been put to rendering for polygons, while the game-play remains last-generation and easily within the capabilities of the PS2 or Wii.
Nijiax @ Oct 28th 2008 7:29PM
You give the graphics chipset in the Wii and PS3 too much credit. You think the Wii can run it with "a few tweaks"? Try a complete graphics overhaul.
You obviously have no idea what the 360 is capable of if you say it cant run MGS4. The PS3 is using out dated graphics technology, the biggest reason they say it cant run it is because of the storage medium it's using (DVD vs BD-ROM). The 360 is more than capable graphically of handling it, since it uses a unified shader system (it's more robust and efficient).
Daryl @ Oct 25th 2008 3:55PM
The bottleneck in the 360 is the cpu. It's extra gpu power is useless.
I stand by what I said. If a game can run well on the 360, it can't really be that demanding.
Daryl @ Oct 25th 2008 4:10PM
The bottleneck in the 360 is the cpu. It's extra gpu power can't be exploited by its bottlenecked CPU that is far inferior to the cell processor. The PS3 on the other hand was designed with balance in mind. It's GPU and CPU don't bottleneck each other, they are approximately equal. Actually I take that back. The GPU does in the 360 has one clear advantage. Red Rings of Death.
If a game can run well on the 360, it can't be that demanding. Dead Rising is a game that runs well on the 360. Look at where it is being ported. A moderate game like Dead Rising, something the 360 can actually do well, is being ported to the wii as we speak.
But Listen to the review of the elder scrolls oblivion by gametrailers for both the 360 and ps3 versions. You can find the reviews, separate, on google videos. It is clear that the ps3 could handle it smoothly and the 360 couldn't. Having the pc version, I am aware of how demanding that game is.
wii = lower power but better controls and gameplay
360 = moderate power
ps3 = the highest power
Microsoft fanboys tenaciously claim that the 360 matches the ps3's power for a cheaper price but it's simply not the case. Every honest multiplaform developer says the PS3 has much more potential power.
SlyTheBoss @ Oct 25th 2008 6:44PM
Daryl. Bethesda was able to spend more time fine tuning Oblivion IV for the PS3. On the other hand, Fallout 3, which is also made by the same team and will be released at the same time on both platform somehow lost that edge, and in fact, although being almost equal, doesn't look as good on the PS3 (according to PSM3)... Kinda throw your theory out the door don't you say?
Extinction @ Oct 26th 2008 3:31PM
Most PS3 games ae prettier PS2 games? No, don't be stupid. Even developers of launch games for PS3 said PS2 couldn't pull of most of what PS3 games are doing. The resistance devs said PS2 couldnt even pull off some of the weapons they had in the game
Daryl @ Oct 25th 2008 6:59PM
If you impose a deadline, 360 games can look good faster, but they still don't have the same potential. The 360 has an advantage in that it is easier to develop for. And it had a head start. The PS3 is still potentially stronger when exploited. The 360 is based on a typical pc intel-style system, whereas the ps3 is based on original research and design. Fallout is pc-inspired, so it takes less work to port it to the 360 than the ps3. But if they took an extra year, like they did with oblivion, the ps3 would look better because the 360 has already reached its max.
Also, I haven't seen the cpu and gpu requirements for the new game, and how demanding the pc one is in relation to Oblivion.
Will @ Oct 26th 2008 4:48PM
Daryl, I like my wii too, but to say any game that runs on 360 can run on wii with some "tweaks" is a bit ridiculous, at best it's misleading.
I'm not flaming, I have wii and 360, but I mean, come on, look at Bioshock, or GoW, or Fable II, and look at some Wii games. Yes some games like Mario look great, but look at any screenshots and you immediately know whether a game is on wii or 360.
It's not as if Capcom is just too lazy to flip some big "build for wii" switch. They would have to redo most of the game, and virtually all of the graphics.
So just chill bro, I knew what I was getting when I bought my wii - I don't expect games that look like RE5 or GoW to come out for wii.
Daryl @ Oct 26th 2008 6:40PM
Bioshock isn't really that demanding, at least the pc version.
Nijiax @ Oct 27th 2008 12:59PM
Almost no games on the PS3/360 is CPU limited. If you had any clue what you're talking about, you'd know this. Very few games are ever bottle necked by the CPU.
The difference in high quality @ 1600x1200 in Crysis between a X6800, QX6700, E6600, and E6300 was 0 FPS, they all performed the same. So unless you can prove to me that there is a more demanding game on the PS3/360 that shows the CPU is the bottle neck, you're just full of it.
Daryl @ Oct 27th 2008 1:53PM
Why is Crysis 1.5 coming out on the PS3 and not on the 360...
I rest my case.
Nijiax @ Oct 27th 2008 11:26PM
If you think it's the processor, you really are as dumb as your comments make you seem to be.
Far Cry 2 is coming out on both systems and is just as taxing as Crysis. It's not the processor and if you still maintain that, then you're an idiot.
Daryl @ Oct 28th 2008 2:04AM
Sigh.
Yes, on a poorly optimized system, the CPU doesn't make a difference. But with console games it is different. They can tweak it to take full advantage of EVERY cpu cycle.
I'll explain why the PS3 can get by with a weaker GPU. It is called pre-rendering. Because of its massive blu-ray, it can store a bunch of image that normally are designed on the spot. So while the 360 may have to draw grass on the spot with mathematical calculations, due to space constraints, the PS3 can use its extra blu-ray space to have the grass already drawn. Then its just a matter of having a fast processor to get it off the disk. Whereas the 360 would have to create the graphics with mathematical calculations (done by the GPU) on the spot. Yes that is easier, but if you take full advantage of the PS3, it doesn't need as much GPU power as the 360 does for the reasons I described above.
But I'm done with this. This is nintendo wii fanboy blog. I merely made the comparison because I believe the average next generation game can be recreated on the wii, but without all the bells and whistles. With lower graphics. But I don't think the most demanding ps3 games can, even without the bells and whistles.
Roto13 @ Oct 24th 2008 9:58PM
I'd buy a Wii version, but I won't be buying the PS360 version.
I didn't think Resident Evil 4 was all that fun until I could aim with the Wiimote. I don't really care about the graphics.
bug frawg @ Oct 25th 2008 10:00AM
So you're saying everyone on xbox live is racist? seriously wut.
Bowser the Baptist @ Oct 25th 2008 10:15AM
Not only racist, but homophobic too. Haven't you discovered the wonders of Xbox live? Anybody that subscribes to the Live service is probably a fascist, definitely a corporatist. The din of an ugly cartel drowns out any positivity gained from the service, and Microsoft, in league with this disgusting group, sit back nonchalantly, simultaneously encouraging such behaviour.
bug frawg @ Oct 25th 2008 11:01AM
There are people like that everywhere, just not as noticeable on NWC because of the lack of voice chat in random matches.
Bowser the Baptist @ Oct 25th 2008 11:18AM
So what's the solution; give into the tyranny of the majority? Accept vulgarity as the norm and try to look past it? No. We all can't be Chamberlain. Appeasement is a false comfort. Are you seriously suggesting that we should allow the fascist takeover online gaming? Because if so, that is not a future I wish to partake in.
vidGuy @ Oct 25th 2008 11:23AM
RE5 is going to look great, no doubt, but the controller stick aiming is going to feel like a huge step backwards after the great control of RE4: Wii Edition.
bug frawg @ Oct 25th 2008 11:48AM
you can't offer the kind of services live has without it being nearly impossible to moderate.
microsoft's real-time audio filter should cut down on some of the foul language, which is live's biggest problem atm.
Mr Khan @ Oct 25th 2008 12:25PM
It's fun having you back, Bowser. Your unwarranted, off-color, and yet eloquent rants amuse me to no end
Even if you are a bit of a prick ;)
PixelFlix @ Oct 25th 2008 1:51PM
Wow Bowser.
I didn't know all the things you said about live users are true. I guess I should go kill myself now..Seriously it sounds like your a major blind troll. not even a fanboy, you flame EVERYBODY. Do us all a favor and leave. Or even better go play some live we'll show you a good time ;)
BebopFox @ Oct 25th 2008 3:11PM
Apparently I'm racists and homophobic, but I guess that's cool? Anyways, I won't be picking up RE5 for xbox nor would I for wii since I'm sick and tired of this 'crap' they call zombies in the RE series now. Originally it was cool and 4, while it didn't have zombie-zombies, was still borderline good cause of the zombie-like state most of the creatures were in. Now we have infected Africans jumping off hills with motorbikes? Thanks RE5, you've destroyed your own image you originally created. I'll stick with Fable 2, Fallout 3, No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki and Monster Hunter. Sad to say that I'm enjoying more games from last generation than this one though.
leonus11 @ Oct 25th 2008 4:52PM
@ D dogg
you my friend are
1) ignoring what he wrote
2) blind and can't read what he typed or
3) plain ignorant
wether or not hand-writting recognition can be done on a weak or powerful PC doesn't change the fact that the Wii and DS are more technically advanced then the PSP, PS3 AND 360! in their own way ALL of the next-gen consoles are technically advanced! so shut the f**k if you don't know what your talking about, idiot! what are you thinking with, half a brain!?