When the Resident Evil 5 demo unleashed on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace, American fans were thrilled to discover that they could download it to their 360s with only a minimal amount of work. But, even though the Japanese RE5 demo was already perfectly playable by American gamers (and available in 100% English), Microsoft and/or Capcom didn’t want American gamers to play it just yet. Dream deferred.

Don’t worry, though, because North American fans will be able to download the demo on their 360 or PS3 sometime in “early 2009,” according to Capcom’s statement at yesterday’s RE5 multiplayer event . While no clearer date than that has been set, I imagine it can’t take too long; the already-released demo was, once again, already perfectly playable by English-speaking American gamers. Until Microsoft decided to corrupt the demo by accessing your 360, that is.

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