While it's just little more than a rumour at the moment, it's possible that the highly anticipated Xbox 360 and PS3-bound survival horror adventure from Capcom, Resident Evil 5, just might be released towards the end of 2008; as opposed to its previous early 2009 release date estimate. This can obviously only be good news for Resident Evil fans whom want to save some extra cash by putting Resident Evil 5 on the top of your Christmas list and getting a relative to buy it for you.
An internal memo from Microsoft games chief, Don Mattrick, revealed the following:
In 2008 the hits will continue to come with exclusives including “Halo Wars,” “Too Human,” “Fable 2,” Alan Wake,” “Splinter Cell: Conviction,” and several exciting yet-to-be-announced titles. Xbox 360 will be home to the next versions of great franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil, and we will continue to be the leading choice for sports fans, with the next editions of Madden and FIFA looking and playing better on our platform.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm almost 1,000,000% confident that no other Resident Evil titles for the Xbox 360 have been announced whilst I was sleeping. So, provided that isn't the case, I'm fairly certain its safe to say that the above comment was referring to Resident Evil 5. I can't guarantee that Resident Evil 5 will be released this year as I'm not privy to that kind of information, but for what it's worth: Resident Evil 5 will more than likely, probably, almost certainly be released this year... maybe.