Ludography
Dead Phoenix cover

2003

Dead Phoenix

Nintendo exclusive

A cancelled GameCube exclusive, intended to be released as one of the Capcom Five.

Released
1 August 2003
Platforms
GameCube
Genres
—
Developers
—
Publishers
Capcom
Themes
Action

About

The Capcom Five are five video games that were unveiled by Capcom in late 2002 and published from March 2003. At a time when Nintendo's GameCube console had failed to capture market share, Capcom announced five new GameCube titles with the apparent goal of boosting hardware sales and demonstrating third-party developer support. Capcom USA followed up with confirmation that they would be exclusive to the GameCube. 03, a futuristic third-person shooter; Viewtiful Joe, a side-scrolling action-platformer; Dead Phoenix, a shoot 'em up; Resident Evil 4, a survival horror third-person shooter; and Killer7, an action-adventure game with first-person shooter elements.

Though not directly related to each other, they were all overseen by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and, except Killer7, developed by Capcom's Production Studio 4. Capcom USA later clarified that only Resident Evil 4 was intended to be exclusive; the initial announcement was due to a miscommunication with their parent company.

Keywords

  • flight
  • polygonal 3d
  • canceled games
  • capcom five

Media

Dead Phoenix artwork 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Legacy

The Capcom Five announcement came at a time when Nintendo had been struggling with its new console, with the apparent goal of supporting the fledgling system. However, each successive game's release reinforced Capcom's view that the GameCube was unprofitable; they ported the games one-by-one to Sony's PlayStation 2. Ultimately, four games were released and only one remained exclusive to GameCube. 03 and not Resident Evil 4, as Capcom had repeatedly emphasized in press releases.

GameCube owners and Nintendo fans were disappointed by the Capcom Five's failure to improve the GameCube's reputation and sales. Luke Plunkett of Kotaku noted that despite best intentions, Capcom's five even at their full potential could not have made up for the GameCube's failings in that generation's console wars. The dramatic reversal of the five is representative of the attitudes of third-party developers toward Nintendo's platform.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
GameCubeCancelled1 August 2003Worldwide

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Development status

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.