The announcement of Exoprimal last week saw Capcom formally return to the world of human vs. dinosaur combat for the first time since 2003 – but many fans of the long-dormant Dino Crisis series haven’t reacted well to the new game.
Dino Crisis first appeared in 1999, combining the survival horror spirit of Resident Evil with a dinosaur breakout storyline drawn from the likes of Jurassic Park. It hasn’t seen a new entry since 2003, but retained a cult following over the intervening years. When last week’s Sony State of Play showed a Capcom game featuring dinosaur combat and a redheaded character with a resemblance to Dino Crisis’ lead, Regina, many thought the wait was over.
But that hope was dashed when it was revealed to be a seemingly entirely separate co-op action game, Exoprimal. Over on the Dino Crisis subreddit, the response has been less than positive, with users calling the announcement “tone deaf“, “cruel trolling“, and “slapdash nonsense“.
That feeling has been deepened by the fact that Hiroyuki Kobayashi – planner of the original Dino Crisis and producer on its two mainline sequels – has announced that he’s involved in Exoprimal’s development on Twitter.
Shortly after his post, multiple Twitter users replied to ask Kobayashi to remake Dino Crisis, or release a sequel, seemingly instead of Exoprimal. Others have gone as far as to say that the game was altered from being a Dino Crisis entry: “You cannot convince me this wasn’t a Dino Crisis game at some point in development,” said stovetopism on Reddit.
Others have remained more hopeful based on Kobayashi’s involvement, with several speculating whether Exoprimal represents Capcom testing its audience’s interest for a dinosaur-based game. “Oh dear,” said Reddit user T_sprigg_Z about Kobayashi’s announcement. “Unless this is meant to gauge interest in Dinosaur video games at the moment. I really hope that’s the case.”
However, Redditor GuiltyCombo doesn’t think that, if this is a test of some kind, it will result in what the community wants: “They’ll act surprised when it tanks and assume no one wants dinosaur games. They always learn the wrong lessons.”
It remains unclear what plans, if any, Capcom has for Dino Crisis – or if Exoprimal is in any way meant to be connected to it. The developer did renew the trademark for the name in 2019, but hasn’t publicly commented on any new games in the series since.
Exoprimal is set to arrive for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and Steam in 2023.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.