Capcom has announced that it has once again licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for another to-be-announced title. Further details regarding this news are available in the full article.

Capcom's Keiji Inafune may have had made a passing mention of Resident Evil 5 (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) for the PC in an interview, but as it turns out, no such thing will see the light of day (at least, that's how Capcom put it). But does it mean that we're not going to have a souped-up PC version of our favorite zombie shooter? More in the full article.

Granted, it's no fun to be on the receiving end of nagging, though sometimes it can help lead to good things, such as Bionic Commando. Let game producer Ben Judd tell you how nagging and the Sony's PSP played a part in the production of the game (besides the confirmed Remote Play version, that is). We've got a "nagging" feeling you'll find the info in the full article, right after the jump.

Bionic Commando (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) fans, heads up: the game's official website has recently been put up, and it's chock-full of news, features and data that shouldn't be missed. So if you're looking to get more info about the friendly neighborhood Bionic Commando (as well as get an earful of some sweet-sounding soundtracks), then head on over to the full article to get up to speed.

We've got an interview of Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Xbox 360) project head Keiji Inafune who talks about Capcom's top franchises and how they're managing the futures of these games. From Mega Man to Resident Evil to Dead Rising, Inafune answers all the tough questions. Have a look:

Probably the most intriguing part here is the one where he discusses Resident Evil 5 and what it's going to be for the new game. Hints have been dropped before but still very little is known regarding the plot. Inafune was once quoted revealing that the game's protagonist will be original hero Chris Redfield in a story that unravels what he's been up to the past ten years.

Set in a desert mission reminiscent of Blackhawk Down, the game has a noticeably different environment from all its predecessors. Everything before Resident Evil 4 was dark and creepy, until a bit of misty daylight was seen. Now it's so sunny that a lemonade stand in the backdrop wouldn't be absurd. The game's release date is still up in the air, but one thing's for sure, it'll be a blast when it comes out.

Demon-slaying Dante first appeared on the PlayStation 2 back in 2001, and Devil May Cry's tight relationship with Sony's console started. As we all know, that soon changed after Capcom's major announcement of developing Devil May Cry 4 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We've heard that it's about the installed user base, but there's more than meets the eye.

Capcom's Head of R&D, Keiji Inafune, had a chat with website Spong to talk about everything DMC4. When asked about the decision to go multiplatform, he replied:

Until now it’s been hard for us to develop multi-platform games, but recently we have developed this development engine that allows us to develop a game in the engine and then put it on to PS3 and 360. Developing Dead Rising and Lost Planet helped flush out everything in the development tool system – which is now pretty much complete, aside from the usual upgrades – so we decided to use that engine, make it for the 360 and the PS3 with Devil May Cry 4.

So, now we can get the game out into the hands of more gamers - because 360 has such a huge installed base already, especially in the US, and as game makers we want as many people to have the chance to play our games as possible.

It looks like developing games for the 360 is very attractive. "It's extremely easy to develop for [360], it just works really well," Inafune told Spong. The PS3, while a powerhouse, is still an unsolved puzzle even for gaming giant Capcom. "We still haven’t had enough time working with the [PS3] to really explore and exploit the machine to its fullest potential," he added.

Buy: [Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)]
Buy: [Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Devil May Cry 4 (PC)]

Good news for gamers, bad news for zombies. Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu in an issue mentioned something about Dead Rising 2. Because of the success of the first iteration of the game, Dead Rising, rumor has been circulating that there might possibly be a sequel currently under development for the Xbox 360. We've also caught word that creator Keiji Inafune said Dead Rising 2 "is in talks". So, don't get your hopes up just yet.

Details (meaning confirmations and denials) are still scarce, but more information could come via Capcom's Gamers' Day event on Thursday. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled back for more info, so keep checking back here for updates. As for the zombies out there, well, we don't suggest going back to the mall just yet.

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Update: Our source for this bit of information changed its entry from "Dead Rising confirme" to "Dead Rising 2 confirme [Rumeur]" so we opted to update our article, too to reflect the changes made.

Ouch.

Kotaku reports on a GDC 2007 Q&A session with Lost Planet producer Keiji Inafune, and when he was asked about the closure of avant-garde Clover Studio, he had one thing to say. Bluntly. They didn't sell, therefore...

Keiji clarified that he DID think that Viewtiful Joe and Okami were great games (heck, critical acclaim agrees with him there). The problem was that "Games are not a work of art... it's a product... a commodity" (heck, sales of Okami sadly agree with that perspective. So do Lost Planet sales).

Based on this quote of Inafune's response, it seems that there must have been a clash of perspectives, and on approaches to promoting a game, between Clover and Capcom:

... the producer didn't do his work. The producers work is to make the team make good games and then sell those games. The producer has to do the promotion... Certainly to get good reviews is part of his job. However, the producer has to make sure the game sells [on par with the review]. I think the producer dropped the ball there. Capcom said they would do it, but Clover said "Oh, we'll do it ourselves." And I think this was a failure.

To paraphrase: it doesn't matter if you're the great Picasso, you STILL need a market-savvy marketer if you wanna make mad money (well, that definitely means advertising majors have their job secure in the gaming industry). A sad commentary in a mass-market industry, or the harsh Darwinian reality of the economics and psychology of gaming?

Verily, a company does sit on its bottom line, but where lies the line between the bottom line and racing for the bottom?

Devs of the now defunct Clover Studio (makers of Okami) have been given new assignments by parent company Capcom.

CVG reports that the devs were assigned to work on Resident Evil 5 with Jun Takeuchi and Keiji Inafune's Wii project. Some regret was expressed over the exit of three Clover veterans: Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. The trio left Capcom to do their own thing and formed an independent studio of their own called Seeds.

The rest of the Clover team were assimilated by the game development giant's dev talent pool. The move wouldn't affect the games in development so much since Capcom doesn't have strict rules regarding their dev teams. According to Charles Bellfield, Capcom's vice president of marketing, "everybody does work on a variety of content and games at Capcom."

Well, there we have it. Some people have some concerns regarding the new Resident Evil since Shinji Mikami is not on the driver's seat anymore. We'll have to wait and see.

Keiji Inafune. Developer, producer, designer, or otherwise involved in Mega Man (okay, to be accurate about it, Rockman...), Onimusha, Dead Rising, and now Lost Planet. Capcom must be extremely grateful to him by now. Of course, the punchline in that story is that when the ideas for these hits first came up, Keiji recounts that Capcom wasn't particularly excited about them. Shocking, we know, and Keiji reveals that and more, in an interview with the Lost Planet community manager, Brian Dunn.

In this interview, the veteran Capcom dev/gold mine reveals not only his influences in creating Lost Planet (Halo, baby), but also the differences between Japanese and American shooters which he perceives; a difference that he wanted to bridge with Lost Planet.

I guess, with just straight-up shooter games, which are of course more popular in the west, a lot of Japanese gamers find something lacking. Like it’s boring to just run around and shoot bad guys or whatever. But with Lost Planet, we’ve put in a lot of action gaming elements, like with the anchor, the grappling hook...

Lost Planet takes it back to the kind of gameplay where you’re always on the run, where you have to constantly move forward and shoot more and more enemies. I think that adds enough of that Japanese gameplay flavor to make it appealing to gamers in Japan as well as the west.

Although even Keiji, a Japanese developer himself, would admit that the tables have turned and that "it's very clear" that "western developers are leading the industry, with Japanese developers falling behind", you have to give him credit for seeing what works in the west, as well as what ideas from across the Pacific may or may not be a good idea to emulate. For one, he points out that it might be a good idea to do what U.S. companies do when it comes to compensation. He notes that people who work in the Japanese gaming industry

... usually receive quite modest compensation. If that doesn’t change soon, the people making the games will stop dreaming, you know. And kids growing up will think twice about getting into video games as a career. It’s hurting the industry...

On the up side, he stresses that Japanese humility may be a good idea to spread around, and that unlike most Western devs who "get big egos when their games become hits", keeping one's head down and "just work on improving the quality of life of the talented individuals making the actual games" may be just what everybody needs to move up.