The development of one-time PlayStation 3 exclusive Devil May Cry 4 began on PC, producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi recently informed Gamasutra. As a result, the decision to later pursue Xbox 360 and PC versions less than doubled the team's workload.

Devil May Cry 4 is slated to release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 5 in North America. A downloadable demo of the console editions is expected early next year.

Much like many of Capcom's other current-gen titles, such as Lost Planet and Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4 uses Capcom's internally shared MT Framework engine. In the past, Japanese developers have been known to be extremely stubborn regarding the sharing of assets and technology, even between teams, though that trend is shifting, in part due to the complexity of developing for current hardware.

As the PlayStation 3's specifications weren't complete when work on the title began, the team started out developing it for the PC, though the game was still... Read more

A gift-giving feature and three new Virtual Console titles, complete with the first VC game to receive new Wii-centric functionality, will be available to online-connected Wii owners later today.

First mentioned earlier this year, gifting allows Wii Shopping Channel devotees to buy Virtual Console games for those they've swapped Friend Codes with. If the recipient already owns the title, the system notifies gift-givers and suggests they pick out another game instead.

In the realm of games, Pokemon Snap, Ghosts'n Goblins, and Baseball Stars 2 are today's additions to the online Virtual Console offerings.

HAL Laboratory's Pokemon Snap, originally for Nintendo 64, is essentially a kid-friendly shooter that replaces guns with cameras. In it, wannabe nature photographers sneak through the Pokemon-infested wild and attempt to take the best ... Read more

Information on Capcom's long-awaited Street Fighter sequel is finally starting to trickle out today.

According to 1UP, the game will retain the series' six-button control scheme set on a 2D fighting plane, while enhancing the experience with 3D polygonal artwork. The report also includes the first screenshot of the game, a stylized shot of Ryu in a pre-Hadouken pose.

Returning characters include Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Dhalsim. Release platforms have yet to be confirmed, though the game will arrive no earlier than 2009 according to Capcom. ... Read more

The multiplayer servers for Capcom's Resident Evil: Outbreak (PS2) and Monster Hunter (PS2) will shut down on December 31, 2007, the company revealed on its official blog.

The action is not a result of a Capcom-made decision, but is instead due to the third-party hosting company closing that portion of its business. Following the server shutdown, players will not be able to play either game online, though the single-player campaigns will remain unaffected.

Both games were originally released in 2004. Resident Evil: Outbreak, which was heavily criticized for lengthy load times and lacking player communication, allowed players to face off against a number of zombified creatures, including elephants. Monster Hunter had players working together to slay epic beasts, such as dragons, with text chat as their only means of communication.

According to the post, Capcom made several efforts to keep the servers online--including contract extension and outsourcing--but the unspecified company "doesn’t want to mess around with the time/money involved in porting anything."

Update: Capcom has clarified to Shacknews that the "demos" of Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 5 included in Resident Evil: Extinction are non-interactive trailers.

Original Story: The DVD and Blu-ray editions of the third Resident Evil movie, Extinction, will include some type of demo for Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360) and Devil May Cry 4 (PC, PS3, X360), reports High-Def Digest.

It is presently unclear if the demos are playable, or just video... Read more

Along with an arcade-perfect HD reimagining of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Capcom's XBLA-bound Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will sport a rebalanced mode that addresses many of the complaints casual and hardcore players have expressed with the game.

Explaining the tweaks at the official Capcom blog, design and gameplay consultant David Sirlin writes that he wanted to make the game easier to play, more balanced for tournament play, and more fun.

Changes include simplified special moves, said to make the game easier to control on a gamepad. For example, certain moves that previously required players to press three buttons simultaneously can now be performed with two buttons. Other tweaks involve more forgiving timing and the removal of many up and diagonal motions, which could occasionally result in unintended jumps.

"These changes alone increase the fun factor of the game quite a bit,... Read more

Continuing the ever-popular trend of premium priced special edition cases and bonuses, Capcom will offer the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360-owning Devil May Cry faithful with a cornucopia of swag when the latest game in the series arrives on February 5.

Packaged within the metal case of the $79.99 Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition are the four episodes of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series Volume 1 and a bonus DVD with making-of content, soundtrack excerpts, a digital artbook, and PC screensavers, wallpapers, and icons. While the price is a bit steeper than the traditional $10 special edition premium, Capcom points out that the anime disc is a $29.99 value.

A standard edition of the game will be available on the two consoles on February 5 as well, priced at $59.99. Though none of the bonus content is platform exclusive, buyers of the eventual PC edition will not be privy the special edition treatment, likely due to the lower price point of the PC version.

Cementing its position as one the top niche publishers on the DS, Aksys Games announced it will be bringing a long-running detective adventure series to North America next spring, in addition to previously-announced DS effort Super Dodgeball Brawlers.

Titled Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles and developed by Arc System Works, the game includes three different murder mysteries to investigate and solve. Similar to Capcom's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series and Cing's Hotel Dusk, both on DS, it is billed as an "interactive digital novel" centered around branching dialog and puzzle solving. Aksys released Japanese-language screenshots today, and promise Jake Hunter will retail at an affordable $19.99 price point.

"Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles is the latest in a growing genre of games that places its focus on fantastic storytelling and character development," noted Aksys project lead Bo deWindt. "It's a great diversion for gamers seeking to test their powers of deduction and reasoning as opposed to their trigger fingers."

Known in Japan as Tantei Jinguji Saburo, the Data East-created series has appeared on numerous platforms, including the NES, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Saturn, but has never before been localized into English.

Capcom just released a whopping 38 new screenshots of Devil May Cry 4, illustrating the game's lush forest environment. The latest entry in the stylish action series hits PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February.

Capcom has released another Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles trailer, this one showing various enemies you'll encounter in the game. The movie seems to feature boss characters in addition to zombies and what not, so beware of spoilers.

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A collaboration between Capcom and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan will result in a full-length computer generated Resident Evil film, Capcom has announced.

Titled Biohazard: Degeneration for Japanese audiences, the movie will, according to Capcom, feature "groundbreaking visual effects and a brand-new storyline" and is planned for a "terrifying release" in 2008.

It is currently unclear if that "brand-new storyline" bit means the feature will deviate from the plot of the game, as Paul W.S. Anderson's live-action trilogy has, or if it will simply investigate another aspect of the franchise's ever-growing zombie-oriented mythology, which goes so far as to encompass zombie elephants.

Other unknown factors include Capcom's plans for distribution--theatrical or straight-to-video--and the timeline of international releases.

Capcom has released four more Bionic Commando movies, focusing on gunplay, chain reactions, swing mechanics and wire mechanics. Since the videos are pretty brief, I've combined them into a three minute long video you can stream below.

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Mercury subscribers can use the HD stream.

Capcom has issued a new trailer for the Wii exclusive Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, showing various weapons available in the game through nearly two minutes of gameplay footage.

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At long last, Capcom has released the first screenshots from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, the company's upcoming graphical overhaul of its oft-remade fighter classic. Posted to the Capcom Digital blog, the work-in-progress shots depict Ryu and Ken duking it out on Balrog's stage and Ken's stage, as well as facing off on the character select screen.

Though the shots are in 1024 by 576 resolution, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix will run in up to 1080p resolution when it becomes available some time in 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Though it features all-new artwork, the game is derived from the codebase of the Dreamcast version; the minor tweaks made to that game will be rectified to bring the game to arcade-perfect status.

For a huge gallery of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix Deluxe of War Chronicles images, continue on to our full gallery consisting of finished sprites, behind-the-scenes sprite production shots, animation stills, and more.

Capcom is knee-deep in Street Fighter development; the company recently announced Street Fighter 4 and released an early trailer.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosted the British Academy Video Games Awards 2007 today, and Nintendo's Wii pack-in compilation Wii Sports came home with the most metal, taking six of the ceremony's 15 awards.

The title was actually nominated for seven awards, losing only the Best Game honor to 2K Boston/2K Australia's underwater shooter BioShock (PC, X360). Although several unreleased titles had somehow made the list of nominees, none of these games came away with an award.

Both Clover Studio's artsy adventure title Okami (PS2) and SCE Santa Monica's brutal mythical action title God of War II (PS2) earned two awards each. Look below for the full list of winners or check out the dubious list of nominees.

• Action and Adventure - Crackdown (Realtime Worlds, Microsoft, X360)
• Artistic Achievement - Okami (Clover Studio, Capcom, PS2)
• Best Game - BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia, 2K Games, PC, X360)
• Casual - Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)
• Gameplay - Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)
• Innovation - Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)
• Multiplayer - Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)
• Original Score - Okami (Clover Studio, Capcom, PS2)
• Sports - Okami Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)
• Strategy and Simulation - Wii Sports (Nintendo, Wii)
• Story and Character - God of War II (SCE Santa Monica, SCE, PS2)
• Technical Achievement - God of War II (SCE Santa Monica, SCE, PS2)
• Use of Audio - Crackdown (Realtime Worlds, Microsoft, X360)
• BAFTA Ones to Watch Award (Independent Dev) - Ragnarawk (Voodoo Boogy)
• The PC World Gamers Award (Public Voting Online) - Football Manager 2007 (Sports Interactive, Sega, PC)

Ubisoft reported its second quarter financial results today, posting a 25.4% increase in revenue to 127 million Euros ($118 million) for the three months ending September 30. Based on the strong second quarter sales, and further gains predicted for the third and fourth fiscal quarters, the company has joined THQ, EA, and Capcom this week in delaying several games into the next fiscal year, which begins on April 1.

The announcement did not specify which games would be delayed, only that three of the four delayed titles are from new brands. The announcement listed the following six franchises as being on track for the current fiscal year: Brothers in Arms, Far Cry, Rayman Raving Rabbids, The Settlers, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. The new titles still coming this fiscal year are Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed, Free Radical's Haze, and Ubisoft Shanghai's Tom Clancy's End War.

Saleswise, revenue from Nintendo DS titles brought in the highest percentage of cash to the company during the current quarter, with 23% of sales attributed to the portable system. PlayStation 3 titles came in second at 20%, with PC titles bringing in a close third at 18% of second quarter revenue.

High Voltage's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (PS2, PSP, Wii) has been pushed from its November 13 release date to an early 2008 release. Capcom senior strategy director Christian Svensson confirmed the delay in response to a Capcom forum poster's query, citing GameStop's new retail date of January 1, 2008.

"The game is and has been finished, submitted and approved, however we felt releasing the game on the same day 112 other SKUs released was not ideal for its chances. Retail buyers agreed," Svensson wrote in the post. "As such, we've opted to move the title out into a slightly cleaner release window. This will allow us to get on more shelves, do a bit more outreach to the media and hopefully get the fans in on the action a bit more."

The Wii version of the title will retail for $39.99, while the PS2 and PSP versions will sell for $29.99. All versions are identical, save for the Wii edition's Wii-tailored controls. For more on Birdman's upcoming antics, check out the Shack's preview of the title as well as an interview with lead designer Micah Skartika.

GameSpot has posted their Capcom Gamers Day writeups, head over here for impressions of Apollo Justice Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry 4, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and others.

Capcom didn't just have a number of game announcements at their recent London Gamers Day event, they also released screenshots and videos from games we already knew about. Check out the full post for media from Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Mega Man ZX Advent, We Love Golf, Bionic Commando and Devil May Cry 4.

Starting things off is Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, coming to the Wii November 13. ... Read more

Capcom today confirmed reports of numerous games that originally leaked during its recent London press event, including a Wii port of Clover Studio's Okami, a new game entitled Dark Void for untitled platforms, a PlayStation 3 port of Lost Planet, and an Xbox Live and PlayStation Network sequel to relatively obscure arcade action game Commando.

Okami
The much-demanded Okami for Wii is being handled by Ready at Dawn Studios, the developer of Daxter (PSP) and God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) whose core members hail from Naughty Dog and Blizzard. The game is set to ship in spring 2008.

"In accordance with our tradition of only working on games we'd like to play, we're proud to announce that we are taking after Clover Studio to bring this incredible game to the platform it was always meant to be on in the first place," reads the company's website. Motion control of the game's celestial is of course in.

Dark Void
Redmond-based Airtight Games, founded by well-known former Xbox executive Ed Fries as well as members of the Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (Xbox) team, is developing Dark Void, a steampunk-tinged action game... Read more