Over the years, Capcom has established its authority as one of the leading developers of survival horror games especially with its massively successful franchise, Resident Evil. The series began in 1996, and 23 years later, Resident Evil still remains as one of the most relevant video game franchises of all time. However, players would remember that Capcom also had another survival horror game that was spawned from Resident Evil's success. Back in 1999, Capcom released Dino Crisis, a survival-horror game featuring dinosaurs that became another instant hit for the Japanese developer and even had the makings of reaching the level of success of Resident Evil.
Unfortunately, it has been 16 years since Capcom released a Dino Crisis game, which raises so many questions as to why the franchise that was once thought to be the next Resident Evil effectively died in such a short amount of time. There are so many factors to consider as to why Dino Crisis met an untimely end, but before diving into what went wrong, it is best to look back at the very beginning and understand the series of events that caused the demise of Dino Crisis.
During the late 90s, Capcom was at the top of its game with the growing popularity of Resident Evil. Prior to the release of the first Dino Crisis game, Capcom has already been enjoying the commercial success of the first Resident Evil game and was elbow-deep in developing the second. The success of Resident Evil prompted the studio to recreate the formula on a new IP, and thus, Dino Crisis was born. Interestingly enough, Capcom wasn't even hiding the fact that Dino Crisis was born out of Resident Evil given that the box art of the first Dino Crisis game even mentioned: "From the creators of Resident Evil." Capcom developer Shinji Mikami, the man behind Resident Evil, even directed and produced the first Dino Crisis game.
During the release of Dino Crisis back in 1999, Capcom has already produced the first two Resident Evil games and its latest survival-horror title that is focused on dinosaurs quickly became an instant hit. Dino Crisis was often referred to by gamers as "Resident Evil but with dinosaurs", which wasn't a bad thing given that Dino Crisis did borrow the formula that made Resident Evil popular, which is an interesting story, an amazing cast of characters, the survival horror mechanic, and fixed camera angles. Dino Crisis even made technological advancements that the first three Resident Evil games did not have, a fully-rendered 3D environment, which is a massive leap from Resident Evil's pre-rendered backgrounds.
Of course, the success of Dino Crisis pushed Capcom to develop a sequel immediately. One year after the release of the first game, Capcom launched Dino Crisis 2, and this is where things started to get shaky. While the game was positively received by fans and was a commercial success, Dino Crisis 2 sold less than its predecessor. The sequel also made a brave departure from the survival horror formula that made Dino Crisis successful and transitioned into a fast-paced action-adventure game. Despite this, Dino Crisis 2 was still a beloved title in the franchise given that it was set in the same universe and followed the story of the first game's heroine, Regina, and introduced Dylan, who became the sequel's primary protagonist.
A couple of years later, Capcom released Dino Stalker, which is a spin-off title that was part of the Gun Survivor series. Being a spin-off title, Dino Stalker didn't contribute much to the franchise's overall plot and did not move the story forward, which is why some Dino Crisis fans decided to skip the game altogether and wait for the sequel to Dino Crisis 2. In 2003, Capcom finally released Dino Crisis 3, and this is where things went downhill for the once-beloved franchise.
Just like with its predecessor, Dino Crisis 3 made a massive departure from the games that precede it, but this time around, the game took things too far. For Dino Crisis 3, Capcom made the decision to scrap the entire storyline and cast of characters that were established in the first two Dino Crisis games. This led to an outrage among longtime fans of the franchise, especially after the heartbreaking cliffhanger ending of Dino Crisis 2. Was Regina able to go back in time to save Dylan? No one knows the answer to that because Dino Crisis 3 was set in the year 2548, which is 538 years after the events of Dino Crisis 2.
To make matters worse, Dino Crisis 3 was released exclusively on the Xbox, which isolated most fans of the Dino Crisis franchise given that all of the previous games were released to the original PlayStation, and most Dino Crisis players had transitioned to the PlayStation 2. Given this, the game was received poorly by both fans and critics due to the unwarranted reboot of the franchise and several issues with the game's mechanics, especially with the camera system with some branding the game having "the worst camera ever." Since then, Capcom shelved the Dino Crisis franchise, which remains dormant until today.
While both Dino Crisis and Resident Evil had a similar beginning, Dino Crisis failed to remain consistent with what it wants to be and introduced massive changes to the franchise in such a short amount of time. Sure, Resident Evil also had its identity crisis with staying true to its survival horror roots in a handful of games, but the franchise remained consistent with its core essence, which is the threat of bioterrorism, the destruction it creates, and the people committed to fighting against it. Resident Evil also had more established lore and a cast of characters that have since become icons in the video game industry.
So after 16 years of remaining dormant, will we ever see another Dino Crisis game? As of the moment, no one knows. However, back in 2017, Capcom tweeted that "if a lot of people wish" for it, the studio is more than willing to remake the first Dino Crisis game. Given the continued success of the remakes of the first two Resident Evil games with the third one in active development, it is not unlikely for Capcom to give the same treatment to the Dino Crisis franchise. Who knows, maybe this would be the perfect opportunity for the studio to redeem what was once considered as the next Resident Evil, and give Dino Crisis its proper place in the video game industry
As of right now, Capcom hasn't revealed an update on whether it has already given the go-ahead for a Dino Crisis remake or remaster, but there is now a glimmer of hope for the Dino Crisis franchise given that Capcom has renewed the trademark for the dinosaur survival horror series. Of course, the studio is probably just renewing the trademark to protect its property, though Capcom did say in the past that it wanted to leverage its existing library of games with remakes and remasters. The company is currently seeing a lot of success with the renaissance of classic Resident Evil games, so maybe the studio is now planning to revive Dino Crisis after all.