Happy 25th, Resident Evil—CODE: Veronica. Now Where’s That Remake?

Poor Resident Evil—CODE: Veronica. At no point in its now 25-year history has it ever seemed like Capcom was giving it the attention it merited. This isn’t to say that they ignored it outright or anything like that, because that’s untrue, but it was positioned in a way that practically guaranteed it wouldn’t see the same success as its predecessors, and now, in a present loaded with remakes, it’s been skipped in line so that a Resident Evil 4 remake could sell a whole lot of copies… without necessarily even being, well, necessary.
Also they named it Resident Evil—CODE: Veronica. An em-dash, an all-caps word, and a colon? All in one title? Capcom must have eventually realized the problem, since the HD remaster is listed on storefronts without the em-dash, at least. Still! It was a ridiculous thing to do even before you realize that it was supposed to just be “Resident Evil 3.”
That’s right: the game we know as Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was actually supposed to be a spin-off, which is part of why the structure is so different from both Resident Evil 2 and CODE: Veronica, but for reasons that are still contested a bit, things didn’t end up working out that way. Here’s what we think we know, based on the responses of Capcom’s own executives and investigations throughout the years. The game Capcom was making for Sega’s Dreamcast, starring Claire Redfield of Resident Evil 2 fame in a search for her brother, Chris, from the original Resident Evil—who was also playable in this parallel tale—was supposed to be the next mainline Resident Evil title, while the aging Playstation was supposed to receive a spin-off. Which makes sense, both in terms of potential new hotness vs. old, and the fact that the game that ended up being Resident Evil 3 has always been something of a black sheep in the series.
Here’s what IGN’s 2009 history of the series said on the subject:
Foremost among their projects were a “gaiden” or side-story game following Jill Valentine’s adventures leading up to the events of Resident Evil 2, and a true next-gen sequel for the Dreamcast. When Sony bartered for a limited exclusivity deal on Resident Evil 3, the gaiden title was re-branded and the sequel labeled the spin-off, but the projects themselves remained essentially unchanged. Capcom even went as far as to promote the upcoming Dreamcast game as the true sequel despite the lack of a numeral in the title.
Back in 2000, IGN reported that Shinji Mikami—who served as a producer on both Nemesis and CODE: Veronica—wanted to keep the numbered titles on the Playstation, which was corroborated by Flagship president Yoshiki Okamoto in the August 1999 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. “If we go by the time sequence, Veronica is actually Resident Evil 3… Every Resident Evil game on the PSX is numbered, like one to three. On other platforms, we put names on the game, like Veronica.” Flagship’s founder and president would know, considering it was a studio funded by all three of Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega that came up with the scenario for CODE: Veronica. Which also had Mikami as producer, and Nextech (known as GAU Entertainment or Nex Entertainment, depending on when you’re talking about in time) working on the title along with Capcom Production Studio 4. It was a significant production.
Of course, this company policy was thrown out the window in time for Resident Evil 4, which, ever-so-briefly, was supposed to be a Nintendo GameCube exclusive and not appear on a Playstation platform at all. Which lends some credence to the idea that Sony “bartered” for the spin-off to become a numbered mainline entry, as IGN stated, but Mikami, in a 2020 interview, said that the decision was not made for “political reasons between Capcom and the console manufacturing company.” However, he did also say that CODE: Veronica deserved to be numbered, so it’s likely that Capcom just decided without external pressure that this way of doing things made sense for the moment. A coup for Sega’s new platform would have been great and all, but the Playstation already had a significant install base to cater to.