Congrats, stormtroopers; you were finally accurate in the worst way.
It’s been around five years since Operation Raccoon City launched, along with controversy. And, as it turns out, that is precisely what led to the shuttering of the company. Back at the time, Slant Six was already working on Star Wars Battlefront 3; we know how that song and dance ended. But, at the time, they were also working on a new, more classic-styled Resident Evil game. As Operation Raccon City Game Director Andy Santos described it in an interview with GameWatcher:
Yeah, there were Star Wars assets on the Operation Raccoon City disc. That led, unfortunately, to our new game being cancelled. It wasn’t a sequel, it was a different game. It was a very sad moment.
We might have got a few terrible review scores, but it was number one in Japan. After making this number one game we got our second game cancelled because of these Star Wars assets being on the disc. I only found out about them from the news story, and I went into work and found out by the end of the day that our next game wasn’t going to be made with Capcom.
Ultimately, the mistake kept the studio from getting the work they needed to stay afloat. After maybe a year, they were no longer capable of functioning as a company, and closed their doors forever.
Operation Raccoon City got some middling review scores, but performed well overall. Despite the fact that Slant Six wanted to make a more traditional Resident Evil game, Capcom was pushing the action edge of the series that had done well in Resident Evil 4 & 5. Regardless of what you thought of it, though, it had to be better than Umbrella Corps. That game is a piece of shit, and I can’t believe that Capcom still thinks they can charge $30 for that mess.
But Andy Santos has moved on to better things. He’s the Head Designer for JCB Pioneer: Mars, which is looking pretty cool. And Capcom, well, they wound up making RE: 7, didn’t they? They figured it all out in the end. Even though it took them a few games to get it, that is.
About Author
