How To Get Access To Japan’s Resident Evil 5 Demo (Update: New Method)

The Biohazard… ahem… Resident Evil 5 demo went live on Japan’s Xbox Live Marketplace. I downloaded it and it’s entirely in English. In fact, the title screen shows up with Resident Evil 5 unless you have your console’s language set in Japanese. So, there really isn’t anything stopping people from playing it except for one problem it’s only on Japan’s Xbox Live Marketplace.

However, you can get access to the demo and kill zombies with a friend over Xbox Live now! Here’s how to do it.

First you need to set up a fresh Japanese Xbox Live account. While the demo is only available to Xbox Live Gold Members new accounts get one month of free gold which means you will be able to download the Resident Evil 5 demo right away.

Setting up a Japanese Xbox Live Account is easy. All you need is a Japanese Hotmail account. You can sign up for one here. When it comes time to fill in your name and location follow this form to register an account in Tokyo. Make sure to write down the e-mail address and password you used!

Turn on your Xbox 360 and make a new profile, pick a name, and select an avatar. When you’re done with that a menu will pop-up with the option to “Join Xbox Live”. Pick this.

When you sign up for Xbox Live use the Hotmail address/password you just registered as the e-mail address. You’ll know if everything is going smoothly if the next screen says “Local: Japan” and there are Japanese characters set for language. You can change the language to English now if you prefer. Follow the instructions as if you were making a regular Xbox Live account until you get to the Telephone field. Put this in: 4332-5300. Once the account is ready you’re all set. Just scroll through the games and find Biohazard 5 to get the demo.

PROTIP: You can quickly jump to Biohazard 5 by picking this hiragana character: は.

Update: It looks like Microsoft may have region locked it now. I got access to it no problem outside of Japan and tested the whole process with a dummy account before writing a post. Since I have the Resident Evil 5 download saved on a second account try getting it from my download history.

Register an Xbox Live account with the following e-mail address and password: [email protected] / residentevil5. Then go to My Xbox -> Manage Account -> Download History and pull it from there.

Update 2: Some desperate and misguided individual changed the password so now nobody, not even me, has access to the account. Sorry, everyone. :( I hope the person who changed the password comes forward and sends an e-mail to me at: [email protected] so other people can get access to the demo now that they have it.

Images courtesy of Microsoft / Capcom.