Although 2024’s holiday season is just getting started, some PlayStation owners just got an early Christmas present. On November 26th, with minimal messaging from Sony and Capcom, Resident Evil Director’s Cut and Dino Crisis were made available as bespoke digital purchases on PS4 and PS5, something that they weren’t eligible for previously. These PlayStation 1 Capcom titles had been part of Sony’s PS Plus subscription plan, but only in its Premium tier, which ran for a pricey $159.99 per year. It was an odd road for Resident Evil Director’s Cut and Dino Crisis to take, but this is good news for fans and a great sign going forward.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have subscription services tied to their consoles’ online features, but their respective pricing, tiers, and additional benefits attached to those tiers vary heavily. PS Plus is typically considered the least valuable of the three, so when a high-profile old game arrives on it alone, sparks can fly. Capcom and Sony found this out the hard way when Dino Crisis’ arrival on PS Plus in the middle of October 2024 was met with backlash, but it’s to everyone’s benefit that the decision was walked back with interest.
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PS Plus Exclusives Are Steadily Becoming More Available
Right now, Resident Evil Director’s Cut and Dino Crisis are still part of the PS Plus package, but also have separate $10 purchases, each of which is less than one month’s worth of PS Plus Premium. This is a good move on both Sony and Capcom’s parts, and not entirely unprecedented for each. On Sony’s end, this is not the first time multiple PS Plus exclusives have provided options for individual purchases after having stayed on the service for some amount of time. Many happened across 2023, and these include:
- Mr. Driller
- Ridge Racer 2
- Ridge Racer Type 4
- Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny
- Tekken 2
- Tekken 6
What motivated the original owners and Sony to make these moves is often unclear, though the short span between Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Tekken 6’s PSP port joining and leaving PS Plus mirroring Dino Crisis doing the same suggests that fan demand was involved. Even with no specified reason, this is still a good trend for these games’ fans and for game preservation on modern consoles as a whole. Games will probably continue to periodically offer additional purchasing options while remaining on PS Plus, and judging by Resident Evil Director’s Cut’s two years on the service, the option will always be there.
The big winner here is fans of Capcom’s golden age, however. Resident Evil remains one of Capcom’s tentpole franchises, so Resident Evil Director’s Cut is a sensible release, especially seeing as it isn’t the DualShock version of REDC with an inferior soundtrack. The Dino Crisis franchise, on the other hand, has been in limbo for over a decade, but demand for its return is mounting. Dino Crisis recently performed unexpectedly well in a major Capcom poll, noticeably winning the category of series that players wished got another sequel. Knowing that, the backlash at Dino Crisis becoming a PS Plus exclusive makes sense.
Old Capcom Titles Returning Could Be Just The Beginning
Dino Crisis still needs a new installment to fully cross its name off of wish lists, but the original game becoming available again is a step in the right direction. Capcom has spent the last several years re-releasing its game library’s highlights, with collections launching for various fighting games and beat-’em-ups, as well as the Marvel vs. Capcom fighters in particular. This also happened alongside efforts to get every mainline Resident Evil title released on PC and modern consoles. Dino Crisis 2 could be next, this time as a standalone title first, and the sky’s the limit for Capcom’s classic PlayStation releases after that.
- Franchise
- Dino Crisis
- Released
- August 31, 1999
- Engine
- re engine
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 6 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Premium