Capcom Discusses Dead Rising 3’s Japanese Influences

The deeper we dig into the Dead Rising franchise, the less it feels like a zombie game made by Japanese developers. In some ways, that’s a good thing. To call the core mechanics of the franchise clunky would be an understatement, and much of that design philosophy seemed to come from Eastern developers. However, it would be unfortunate for the series to lose its unique personality, which seems to be a major reason why the original Japanese developers provided input early in the life of Dead Rising 3.

Capcom Vancouver producer Mike Jones spoke to Edge at TGS about the upcoming Xbox One exclusive.

“From the early planning stages, we did have a handful of core [Capcom Japan] creatives who were responsible for finding Blue Castle Games back before it became Capcom Vancouver, in the planning and prototype stages of this,” Jones said. “Those guys were involved in the planning stages, like the characters and the scenario. But unfortunately Inafune left in 2010 and he’s been doing his own thing.”

That doesn’t mean that this has become the game Inafune would have made, but there’s a trusted team behind the next-gen project that have the franchise’s best interests in mind.

“[Inafune's team] sought out Blue Castle Games back in the day because they wanted [Blue Castle's] take on Dead Rising and to bring it to a larger Western audience, and they’ve now trusted Capcom Vancouver to be the owners of the Dead Rising franchise,” he concluded.

Look for Dead Rising 3 to launch alongside the Xbox One.