Rumor: Resident Evil 5's Versus Mode Was, Yes, On The Disc All Along

By Luke Plunkett

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Capcom caught more than a little flak for charging extra for Resident Evil 5's VS mode. Their excuse? That it was "beyond the initial scope of Resident Evil 5".

Seems Capcom may have a strange way of defining what was in the "initial scope" because, as anyone who has downloaded the add-on will have found, the DLC weighs in at a massive 1.8MB. Leading many to suggest that, well, you're not really downloading VS mode at all. You're just downloading a key and some extra code that unlocks content that was already on the disc. The disc you already paid for.

Course, this practice is nothing new. Nor, if true, would it be entirely unexpected, as Capcom had previously said that VS mode "makes use of the assets that exist in the game".

The counter-point - as many of you have already pointed out - is that 1.8MB is a bigger file than other, previous "unlock codes". And if the game only needed new code, and not new assets, then 1.8MB may well cover everything that was needed.

As of writing, Capcom have yet to respond to our requests for clarification or comment.

[via IGN]

1.8MB could be a lot of things depending on how they do their levels. In a lot of editors a level is simply a text file. Those text files only reference textures, characters, animations, and whatever else, they don't store them.

So if all the multiplayer assets were already there for the single player game then it's perfectly reasonable to assume the multiplayer levels aren't actually on disc and you are downloading the actual levels.

Actually, you aren't even downloading levels.  It uses the same levels as the ones used for the Mercenaries mode.  So really, other than patching in the code for the versus modes, there isn't all that much to download.  Although 1.8 MB (XBox360) and 370KB (PS3) are very small patches, I wouldn't accuse Capcom of charging for content already on the disc yet.

You're still actually downloading a level, it's just using the same geometry as other levels.

Hey, IGN only called it a "rumor," so it's fair game to post whatever they want to without doing any research, a'ight?

twestern put it best.

This is all a little absurd because 1.8M is actually a lot of code.

I doubt that.  The Mercenaries game mode already has multiple spawn points, so it would just be a matter of not using the time/combo pickups, and spawning or not spawning the Majini, depending on whether you are playing Survivors or Slayers.  All of which is easily handled by game code.  And if they need extra spawn points, that can also be handled by game code rather than editing the map, recompiling it, and downloading it all over again.

No, I do know how these things work.  While I've never worked in that engine, I do know it's simply easier to make an entirely new level and is far less error prone.

It is just another level file using the same set (or whatever they call their BSP).

108k is the size of a DLC key.

1.8MB is surely just the key and the addition to the menus.

I remember alot of the DLC for Megaman9 was like.... 100Kb and less.