For its latest State of Play event, Sony opened up by showcasing a new IP coming to PS4 and PS5 from Capcom, and it curiously evoked the Japanese publisher’s past. Between elements like the presence of mysterious portals, a red-headed female hero, and jetpacks, the newly announced Exoprimal looks a lot like Dino Crisis. The comparisons between the two dinosaur-themed games were so on the nose that many onlookers were sure that the two were one and the same until the game’s actual title flashed across the screen.
Over the last few years, voices calling for Capcom to resurrect its iconic survival horror franchise have grown increasingly louder. Between the recent commercially successful return of dinosaurs on the big screen and the publisher’s various Resident Evil remakes, there’s been a growing sense that Dino Crisis’ time in the spotlight should come again. Despite this, Capcom is yet to give any official confirmation that a new project is being worked on behind the scenes. Exoprimal demonstrates efficiently why a new Dino Crisis game would work remarkably well.
Exoprimal’s Dino Crisis Potential
While there are some clear parallels between Capcom’s classic franchise and Exoprimal, the upcoming game doesn’t appear to have much in common with what Dino Crisis was originally built to be when it comes to gameplay design philosophies. On paper, Exoprimal is seemingly more in line with Bungie’s Destiny and BioWare’s ill-fated Anthem. Despite the increased adoption of more action-centric mechanics in later installments, Dino Crisis was conceived as a survival horror experience. Even though later games departed from the pure horror aspect of that design, it can be argued that surviving against hordes of dinosaurs still remained a constant undercurrent.
With that being said, there are still tell-tale signs in Exoprimal‘s design that demonstrate why a new Dino Crisis installment or remake could work well. If viewers set aside the futuristic mechs, energy shields, and powerful guns ripping them apart, it becomes especially apparent how Exoprimal’s army of prehistoric enemies is still a scary proposition. Hordes of theropods and charging triceratopses, two concepts seen in Dino Crisis, are so detached from more traditional horror tropes that they even seem effective in a game like Exoprimal. In an industry that’s dominated by hordes of the undead and alien invaders, there’s something fitting about the fact that dinosaurs are now a potentially fresh type of adversary.
Indeed, going back to the series beloved roots and playing on this scary proposition would ignite a fanbase that has been waiting nearly 20 years for a new Dino Crisis game. Scary dinosaurs, and the variety that are being brought back to life in Exoprimal, will subsequently be at the top of many wishlists. It’s easy to imagine a new installment that marries the graphical fidelity and effects seen during Sony’s State of Play presentation, with the quality of the recent Resident Evil remakes, all going down well amongst critics and fans alike.
Exoprimal’s Commercial Potential
Capcom’s decision to fund a new IP that focuses on dinosaurs creating crises, after nearly two decades away from the concept, is the biggest demonstration of why a new Dino Crisis project would have massive sales potential too. It’s no coincidence that the publisher has signed off on Exoprimal at this point in time, for a release in 2023. It might seem slightly ironic based on the fact that they’ve been extinct for millions of years, but dinosaurs have been experiencing something of a cultural resurgence in recent times. Thanks to the release of Jurassic World in 2015, and the $1 billion dollars it grossed in just 2 weeks, it’s become clear that there’s still money to be made from the ancient reptiles.
Coinciding with their box office success, it should also be pointed out that from a scientific perspective more dinosaur fossils and species are being found now than at any other point in history as well. Both phenomenons are having the accumulative effect of keeping dinosaurs in the public consciousness. So far though, this increase in publicity hasn’t really permeated into the gaming industry at large. Aside from Frontier’s Jurassic World Evolution series, the only notable dinosaur-themed games in recent years have come from smaller indie studios.
There’s clearly a lot of potential being left on the table for a major publisher to enter the space with a new dinosaur-themed project, as evidenced by Capcom’s own attempt to do so with Exoprimal. The fact that the new title has garnered so much attention, despite the backlash from justifiably disgruntled Dino Crisis fans upset that it isn't quite what they wanted, arguably underlines this even further. It’s not hard to envision a game like Dino Crisis that embodies the most celebrated aspects of the franchise, with all of its established legacy and fans, being even more successful off the back of Exoprimal’s release next year.
Exoprimal releases in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
