Rush Order

Tsujimoto Kenzo sat in the president's office, listening to the clamor drifting in from the corridor outside.

That was the sales department running back and forth, the sound of leather shoes striking the composite flooring in a chaotic jumble.

"President." The sales director pushed the door open, clutching a thick stack of fax paper, his breathing a little hurried. "The summary data from North America is out."

Tsujimoto Kenzo looked up from a pile of planning documents.

"The first pressing of 100,000 Resident Evil discs was distributed across all channels in North America on Tuesday.

Today is Friday, and the shelves at Best Buy, Walmart, and EB Games are all empty." The sales director spread the fax papers across the desk. "At one retail store in Los Angeles, the store manager almost got into a fight with the distributor's salesman over the last five discs."

The initial shipment of 100,000 copies had sold out completely in three days.

Tsujimoto Kenzo picked up the fax.

It was packed densely with urgent restock orders, all in English.

The project that rookie Shinji Mikami had carried on his shoulders had stirred no small amount of controversy inside the company before release.

Fixed camera angles, tank-style movement, a screen full of blood and rotting flesh.

Capcom's signature titles in the past had been fighting games like Street Fighter, bright in color and with every punch landing on flesh.

To suddenly produce such a dark, oppressive "survival horror" category had made even Tsujimoto Kenzo break into a cold sweat.

But European and American players' frenzy for zombie themes had exceeded everyone's expectations.

The soil of zombie culture that Hollywood B-movies had cultivated for decades had been set off completely by this game.

That zombie turning its head back had not only scared the testers stiff,