Capcom released a trove of information today concerning their upcoming action-adventure title, Dragon’s Dogma. Amidst talk of release dates, downloadable content and pre-order bonus content was an interesting bit of information regarding the recently announced and already heavily hyped, Resident Evil 6. Namely, that purchasing retail copies of Dragon’s Dogma will net you a golden-ticket, in this case, a download token for the Resident Evil 6 demo; but here’s where things get interesting. Despite the simultaneous release date of Dragon’s Dogma for both XBOX 360 and Playstation 3, May 22nd in North America and May 25th in Europe, purchasers of the Xbox 360 version will have access to the playable RE6 demo on Xbox Live a full two months before it is made available on the Playstation Network.
The demo will be made available globally for download on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace beginning on July 3rd, meaning Playstation Network subscribers will need to hold on to those tokens until they will have access to the demo starting on September 4th in North America/Japan and September 5th in Europe.
There is no mention on the reason for this period of exclusivity but it wouldn’t be the first time digital content intended for a multi-platform release graced one ahead of another. The recently released Darkness II demo appeared on Xbox Live several days before it was available on PSN. Similarly, the first two planned DLC installments for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be made available 30 days before any other platform.
I assume that the Resident Evil hype machine in conjunction with the mass appeal of the series, will be used to leverage those consumers on the fence with regard to platform, in the direction of the Xbox 360. Despite the almost guaranteed success of the forthcoming Resident Evil installment, I suppose this could be seen as an effort to lock in early bird pre-orders on Microsoft’s platform, before the opportunity to sample the Playstation port. In any case, let’s hope the demo gives us a reason to hand over our $59.99, a good faith investment on a game we’ll need to own.
Resident Evil 6 is scheduled for release on November 20, 2012.
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