An eventual PC version of Capcom's Resident Evil 5 (PS3, 360) is quite likely, going by comments made by producer Jun Takeuchi and the studio's past history. Speaking with Eurogamer, Takeuchi revealed that the survival horror title is being primarily developed on the PC and then ported over to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Capcom previously used a similar setup for the development of Devil May Cry 4, which began life as a PS3 exclusive but was eventually moved to Xbox 360 and PC as well.
"By developing [DMC4] on the PC, it's very easy for us to work with the graphics and the gameplay, and see how the game is going to play," DMC4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi said of the setup last year. "We're still continuing to develop it on the PC, as well as being able to check how it runs on the 360 and the PS3."
While Capcom has yet to confirm a PC release of Resident Evil 5, the company has been making a greater effort to support the PC across the past year with internally developed ports. This is mostly due to its MT Framework technology, which simplifies multiplatform development.
In fact, the only retail Xbox 360 release Capcom has not ported to the PC thus far is Dead Rising, a zombie-killing Xbox 360 exclusive that arrived in 2006.
The following retail title from Capcom, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, hit PC months after the Xbox 360 release, with the PC port Devil May Cry 4 due this summer. Nearly all of Capcom's upcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 retail efforts, including Street Fighter IV, Dark Void and Bionic Commando, are slated to hit PC as well.
Resident Evil 5 is expected to hit consoles by March 31, 2009. If a PC version were to be released, it would likely follow the console editions due to the optimization work required to support a number of different hardware configurations.
