Capcom applied for a new Dino Crisis trademark on March 4, a Japanese watchdog site reveals, though the developer’s seemingly renewed interest in its nearly 30-year-old horror franchise might not be as meaningful as fans are begging it to be. Capcom’s been here before.
Public U.S. records reveal that, since Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami directed the Jurassic massacre back in the ’90s, Dino Crisis has been getting renewed trademarks; Capcom last filed and was approved to renew the game’s original 1999 trademark in 2021, and that renewal will last for another decade.
Then, in 2019, Capcom issued a new trademark filing in Japan for Dino Crisis, just like it did this spring. Because it was fresh, that filing triggered fans’ quivering suspicions that they’d soon be blissfully near more homicidal velociraptors and Regina, Dino Crisis’ gun-wielding, redhead protagonist. There hasn’t been a Dino Crisis installment in over 20 years.
But, aside from Dino Crisis and its 2000 sequel joining GOG’s pile of cult classics in a recent bundle deal, Mikami’s disaster series has sadly remained untouched.
Mikami expected that to be the case. Actually, he can’t understand why anyone would think otherwise.
In 2024, Mikami told Eurogamer that he was “very surprised” to hear that fans wanted more Dino Crisis, dismissing their cravings by saying that the “awesomeness of dinosaurs, and the stuff you can do with dinosaurs – that’s been kind of really nailed down by Monster Hunter in recent years.”
“So even if I were to decide to make a remake or a new version of Dino Crisis,” he continued, “I don’t really feel like there’s a whole lot of space for that kind of game right now, just since Monster Hunter has become such a big game.”
To his point, Monster Hunter Wilds has been enjoying massive success after its recent release, proving that it might really be the popular angel to Dino Crisis’ goth, dino devil.
Dino Crisis is finally getting the resurrection it deserves – and it’s still a blast.