Capcom Vancouver Lays Off Staff; Affecting Dead Rising 5 Development

Capcom Vancouver developed Dead Rising 4, however the game was underwhelming compared to the previous entries of the franchise. Now work is underway for the next Dead Rising game presumably called Dead Rising 5, but its development has reached a big obstacle now.

As reported by Kotaku, a source tipped them off by saying that 50 people were laid off recently from Capcom Vancouver. The studio had 250 employees before so roughly around 20 percent of employees were laid off affecting development for the next Dead Rising video game.

The reason for the lay offs is to streamline development mainly because it was looking like Dead Rising 5 was going to be a bit too ambitious. The game was going to be too big for a staff of their size so laying off employees was a better way to speed up its development as well as cut down on the original huge ideas for the game.

The fifth Dead Rising game was to take place in an alternate version of New York City and was going to be a third-person action video game. Capcom sadly did not comment to Kotaku about the situation, although it sounds like things are going to change in regards to the direction of the Dead Rising franchise.

Dead Rising games have always been ambitious mainly because there were multiple endings and tons of side quests for you to do. Dead Rising 4 changed all that and was a more linear experience and was a much shorter game too.

Hopefully the 50 people that were laid off are able to find decent work elsewhere in the video game industry. AAA studios aren’t the only teams in town as many indie studios are thriving in today’s market.