When we talked to SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery at E3 last week, he showered us with knowledge and know-how. He also threw in a quick mention of a game we hadn't heard anything about — officially, that is — Resident Evil 5 for the Wii. To say that we were surprised to hear it mentioned would be an understatement, despite our non-reaction if front of Mr. Jeffery.
We followed up with a couple folks about the on camera slip of the tongue, starting with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime.
Discussing our Executive Pop Quiz, in which we asked Nintendo Corporate Affairs VP Denise Kaigler if Resident Evil 5 was getting a Wii version, Mr. Fils-Aime fired back with a "Not yet!" and a laugh that left us more confused than when we started the question.
Talking to Capcom's Chris Kramer outside the publisher's E3 meeting room, he seemed genuinely surprised to hear of such a product. We told him that we already knew about the existence of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop and he suggested that Mr. Jeffery was simply confusing the two products.
As far as a Wii port of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 title, Kramer asked of us "Have you seen Resident Evil 5?" implying that such a port would be almost impossible, adding that he'd not heard any such product was in the works for Nintendo's platform.
Finally, we followed up with Mr. Jeffery himself who said the mention of Resident Evil 5 for the Wii was just a "simple slip of the tongue."
"We'd been discussing the Res Evil 5 showing at the Microsoft event earlier, and it was still on my brain – that's all," he wrote in an e-mail.
After the surprise announcement that Dead Rising was making the transition to the Wii — as Resident Evil 4 did, very successfully — we wouldn't discount anything at this point. Capcom seems to love all platforms equally. Resident Evil 5 for Wii has been officially denied, albeit in roundabout ways, so we won't cancel our pre-orders for the superior Wii version just yet.
But who knows what the future holds?