sisslethecat
All the way back in May of last year, we reported on a fan-made remake of the 2000 Dreamcast classic Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, which has been shaping up rather nicely over the course of the last year and a half. Alongside it, that same team of fans was working on a rather impressive-looking re-remake of Resident Evil 1, which included entirely new content set before the events of the main game, allowing you to fully explore the R.P.D. pre-outbreak and chat with your fellow S.T.A.R.S. operatives before take-off. Both projects were really interesting to watch grow as a fan, and we were excited to see where they ultimately ended up. Sadly, it turns out that the way that they’re ending up — is to end. In a video published to his personal YouTube, developer Briins Croft has announced that both projects have been given a Cease & Desist order from Capcom:
Capcom’s cancelation of these projects, which obviously they are well within their rights to do, is somewhat surprising given how rarely they do this sort of thing. The most prominent example of Capcom taking down a project was 2015’s RE2 Reborn, a fan-made remake of Resident Evil 2. However, that was a very specific set of circumstances, as the game was taken down so as not to conflict with Capcom’s own official remake (and the team behind RE2 Reborn was even invited to Capcom HQ to give their feedback on the official game). Capcom’s already been clear that there are no plans for a Code: Veronica remake at this time (although they didn’t say never), so it’s not that. Some have speculated that it was due to the team taking donations from fans, but that’s a lot different from outright selling the game, which would directly infringe on the copyright (the developers also claim that it wasn’t the reason Capcom gave them).
There’s every chance these just got too damn high-profile for their own good. Part of a company choosing whether or not to act on protecting its copyright is whether or not the project could be mistaken for official content; if a fan project remains small enough, it probably wouldn’t be worth their time to go after said project. The Code: Veronica remake was getting reported on by the likes of IGN, so it was getting about as much media coverage as an actual Resident Evil game.
Regardless, it’s a shame to see so much hard work ultimately go to waste, but that’s the gamble when attempting to make fan content with licensed media I suppose. The developers have already made promises to keep developing a new game inspired by Code: Veronica, but with an original story, so we can’t wait to see it.
[Source]
