Exoprimal is a full-price release, it prizes PvE over PvP, and no, it has absolutely nothing to do with Dino Crisis.
Since its announcement, it has been unclear what form Exoprimal will take, and even if it will be a free-to-play live service game. Speaking to IGN, producer Ichiro Kiyokawa made clear this was not the case, saying “Exoprimal is not free-to-play; it’s a full-priced release which will be available both on disc and digitally.”
In the spirit of putting speculation to bed, we also asked the game’s creators whether the new Capcom dnosaur game has any connection with the old Capcom dinosaur game, Dino Crsisi. Director Takuro Hiraoka was very clear: “No, the game is its own unique thing and has no relationship to Dino Crisis.”
As for what Exoprimal is, Hiraoka was naturally more talkative, and was keen to show off how it differs from Capcom’s fellow monster-bsttling multiplayer action series, Monster Hunter.
“Our initial concept was that we wanted to challenge ourselves to create a feeling of satisfying action that was different to past Capcom titles. Instead of a game like Monster Hunter, where you face a single, powerful enemy, we though that the experience of taking on and overcoming a huge horde of enemies had the appeal and potential to be the basis of a new IP. We also thought that it would feel great to share that experience with others online, and so the basic concept of Exoprimal was born.”
“Once we had established our gameplay concept,” Hiraoka continued, “dinosaurs were the first idea that came up for the enemies you would face. I thought that it would be fun to experience the threat of history’s most fearsome predators, and that if there were hundreds or thousands of them it would be an intensity that hadn’t been seen before. Once we had that idea, we felt that the only way to face the overwhelming strength and numbers of dinosaurs would be with futuristic technology rather than modern weapons.”
Exoprimal is a ‘PvPvE’ game, putting competing teams of players into arenas with hostile AI enemies to attack. PvPvE has become increasingly common in recent years, but Hiraoka sees this as a new take on the genre:
“I think that most of the PvPvE titles on the market are based around PvP, with some PvE elements included. ExoPrimal has a PvE focus that we feel is very enjoyable, exciting and unique. In addition, the main mode, Dino Survival, allows players to enjoy a different experience every time they play, as the missions, stages and dinosaurs that appear in the game change according to the player’s game progress […] During development, the team of course [playtests] the game, but we’ve also had non-dev staff play as well, and they’ve always been surprised and had fun when they saw how the game changes every time you play.”
Exoprimal is scheduled to arrive in 2023 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. It was announced in March, and got a new gameplay trailer today that confirmed the game will get a closed network test before release.
Check out the full list of everything announced at today’s Capcom showcase right here.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
