It's a Dino Crisis for Capcom as It Abandons New Exoprimal Content Just a Year After Launch
Jurassic snark.
Capcom’s co-op dinosaur mech game Exoprimal will not receive any new content, the company has announced just a year after the game came out.
The shooter launched in July 2023 as a brand new intellectual property from Capcom and an attempt to create a successful live service. Despite various updates and crossovers with other Capcom franchises, such as Street Fighter, that attempt has not been as successful as hoped. According to SteamDB, Exoprimal had a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of just 66 on Valve's platform, with only 41 concurrent players at the time of this article's publication.
Capcom said that with the release of Title Update 4, all planned Exoprimal seasonal content has been finished. After Season 4, which concludes on July 11, Season 1 will return, marking the beginning of a recycling of already released content. From there, a new season will begin on the first of each month. In addition, Season Passes 1 to 3 will be available for sale again. “This will allow players to obtain items from all seasons,” Capcom explained. Essentially, Exoprimal will be put on a Season 1 to 4 cycle going forward.
Capcom insisted all online services will continue to be available, so Exoprimal will remain available to play despite the company essentially walking away from the game. All gameplay modes will remain available to play, including the main Dino Survival mode, as well as endgame content such as Savage Gauntlet and Time Loop Rebellion.
If you're playing alone or match with only a few other players, Bots will still be added “so that you can fully enjoy the Hammerheads' story and reach the ending,” Capcom added.
“The Exoprimal team appreciates your interest and support, and we hope to see you in the wargame!”
Exoprimal’s announcement back in 2022 was seen as a death knell for a potential Dino Crisis revival, but Capcom teased fans recently when it tweeted out a solitary image to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the much-loved dinosaur survival horror game.
In August last year, Capcom admitted to “challenges” given Exoprimal is a new IP, but pointed to the fact it had more than one million players as a “positive."
“Given that this game is an all-new IP, the situation is not without its challenges; however, we view the fact that the game has amassed over one million players to be positive,” Capcom said at the time. “Going forward, we will continue to release content for the game while monitoring player behavior with an eye toward expanding sales.”
Capcom insisted it expected Exoprimal would be a profitable project overall (it launched straight into Game Pass). Exoprimal does not currently feature on Capcom’s list of platinum-selling titles, which means it has sold less than one million copies.
IGN’s Exoprimal review returned an 8/10. “Exoprimal's unique take on the hero shooter genre is a bold one – with its best modes and surprises hidden deep within its goofy sci-fi story – but a variety of fun exosuits, the simple appeal of tearing through thousands of dinos, and great multiplayer design make that grind an easy one to recommend sticking with,” we said.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.