Capcom has seen great success in its remakes for several years, particularly those from the Resident Evil franchise. Of course, this is hardly surprising since Resident Evil remains one of Capcom's biggest video game franchises. However, Capcom fans have also been asking for the studio to remake some of its other IPs, most notably the Dino Crisis franchise, which has been dormant for nearly two decades.
During its launch in 1999, Dino Crisis caught the interest of survival horror fans, especially after the massive success of the Resident Evil franchise. For a time, many thought that Capcom was able to replicate Resident Evil's success in a new franchise, but fans soon lost interest in Dino Crisis after the release of the third game. Given Dino Crisis is often considered Resident Evil but with dinosaurs, why wasn't it able to replicate Resident Evil's success?
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It is no secret that the release of Dino Crisis 3 in 2003 saw the downfall of what was once thought to be the next Resident Evil. However, it is worth remembering that Capcom implemented massive changes in Dino Crisis 3's story and setting that basically neglected everything that the first two Dino Crisis games started. The first Dino Crisis game was set in 2009, the second in 2020, and the third in 2548. Given this massive time jump, none of the characters from the first two games ever made it to Dino Crisis 3, and the story and cliffhanger in Dino Crisis 2 was never resolved.
Instead, Dino Crisis 3 introduced an entirely new cast of characters and transferred its setting to space. Not to mention, the dinosaurs in Dino Crisis 3 were in no way similar to traditional ones featured in the first two games. While some connections to its predecessors exist in terms of concept, Dino Crisis 3 was seen as an entirely separate game, which was received poorly by fans. In contrast, the Resident Evil franchise was able to keep a consistent storyline, and all mainline games in the series are connected via the plot and the characters.
Another major reason why Dino Crisis could not replicate Resident Evil's success is that dinosaur video games aren't as popular as zombie games. It is worth noting that while Resident Evil isn't a full-fledged zombie game, given that the franchise has since departed from traditional zombies, it was able to evolve its enemies alongside the viruses and parasites that continue to drive the story forward.
Additionally, it is worth knowing that while the success of the first Resident Evil game had a great effect on the reception of Dino Crisis. The popularity of dinosaur movies at the time, such as Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, were also major contributors to its success. Unfortunately, even dinosaur movies lost their vigor in the early 2000s. Jurassic Park 3 received lukewarm reviews that began the long hiatus of the movie franchise, which was only restarted with 2015's Jurassic World.
When Dino Crisis was first released, Capcom was applauded for implementing the Resident Evil formula on a new IP. In many ways, the first Dino Crisis game is very similar to the classic titles in the Resident Evil franchise, which is not bad because survival horror games were all the rage during the late '90s. However, when Capcom released Dino Crisis 2, the franchise shifted drastically from survival horror to action shooter. While the second game did receive some success, it was at this point that the franchise lost its survival horror audience.
It is worth noting that the Resident Evil franchise also suffered from the same fate at some point in its history. Starting with Resident Evil 4, the franchise began to lean more towards action-horror rather than the survival horror formula that put it into the spotlight in the first place. However, unlike Dino Crisis, Resident Evil was already a solid franchise when it transitioned to action, which is why it was able to remain relevant and make a huge comeback when it returned to its horror roots, starting with 2017's Resident Evil 7.
In the end, the Dino Crisis franchise is a missed opportunity for Capcom. Ever since the studio released the Resident Evil 2 remake, fans have been asking for Capcom to revive the Dino Crisis franchise with a remake of the first game. Although Capcom did express some interest in a remake, the demand for it wasn't as strong compared to Resident Evil 2. It is worth noting that there were reports that some developers pitched the revival of the Dino Crisis franchise with a new project. However, it was later revealed that Capcom scrapped the idea, making the possibility of a Dino Crisis revival highly unlikely.