A series that had been dormant for two decades just sold over a million copies on its very first day. That's the report card for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, marking the franchise's first mainline entry since 2006's Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. Capcom didn't just tuck that number quietly into a financial report—it used the sales announcement to drop a much more telling line: the company is "reviving IPs that haven't seen new releases in recent years" to "further enhance corporate value" by tapping into its rich back catalog.
It sounds like standard corporate speak, but line it up against Capcom's recent moves and there's a clear pattern. A new Okami and Mega Man: Dual Override are already on the way—both examples of old franchises coming back to life. Add in the success of Resident Evil: Requiem and Pragmata, and Capcom's playbook over the past couple of years has become obvious: push new IPs while digging old favorites out of storage.
Dino Crisis is the most obvious case right now. The series' last entry came out back in 2003, but Capcom bundled the first two games into a remaster last year, put it on Steam this past February, and Dino Crisis 2 is expected to hit the PlayStation Plus game catalog sometime soon. This string of moves doesn't feel like pure nostalgia—it looks more like Capcom reminding players how much they loved the series before officially announcing something new.
Dead Rising could also be on the shortlist, with the first game recently getting a remaster. As for Lost Planet, there hasn't been a new entry since Lost Planet 3 in 2013—odds look slimmer than the others, but it's still sitting in Capcom's vault as an option.
The real "sleeping giants," though, are two other franchises. Devil May Cry hasn't had a new entry since Devil May Cry 5 in 2019, yet it's Capcom's fifth best-selling IP with 41 million units sold—trailing only Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, and Mega Man. Ace Attorney, meanwhile, has gone a full decade without a new mainline release, with 15 million units sold to date. Stack those numbers next to Onimusha: Way of the Sword's million-unit opening day, and this might just be the list Capcom is most eager to thaw next.
