Before it became the PlayStation’s first million-seller game, Resident Evil for the original PlayStation 1 was caught in the middle of a financial crisis, as Capcom was looming over the possibility of going bankrupt. A crazy thought considering where they are today, but the landscape of gaming as we know was far different in ’90s. With costs of development soaring with 3D games, and the company experiencing not-so-well expected results from recent releases, some big changes had to be made, and one of them was the potential cancellation of their yet to be proven title, Resident Evil.

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As told in the newly released book “Itchy, Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil” by industry professional Alex Aniel, Capcom had considered cancelling Resident Evil, despite almost being completed. This came under a recommendation from an American consulting firm, though internal pressure also pushed for it’s cancellation.

“No one, not even the development team, had high expectations for the game. Certain managers at Capcom wanted to cancel the game, and that’s what nearly happened. However, I really pushed them to see production through to the end. I myself personally had a lot of faith in the game,” said Tokuro Fujiwara who was executive producer at Capcom at the time.

Alex also makes notes that even the game’s own director, Shinji Mikami, didn’t know of the potentially cancellation, at least not until nearly a decade after release. 

The title would go on to shatter Capcom’s sales and critic expectations and win Game of the Year (GamePro magazine) along with being voted as the best PlayStation game in the states. A company that was apparently on the brink of going under was now seeing a new breath of life that would go on and continue to carry it to this day.   

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Itchy, Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil By Alex Aniel is now on sale on Unbound for $15. It is also available for pre-order (April 15 release) digitally via Amazon, as with a hard cover copy (July 21 release). Highly recommend everyone give this a purchase and read, as it uncovers plenty of new Resident Evil history that was previously unknown. Not to mention it’s a wonderful read.