The company hopes to pin down a specific demo date "soon," noting that the North American demo will arrive later than the Japanese version. Capcom also reaffirmed that Resident Evil 5 is on track for a March 13 release in North America and Europe, despite Capcom Japan bumping the Japanese release up to March 5.

Original Story: A downloadable demo for Capcom's Resident Evil 5 will be released for Japanese Xbox 360 owners next Friday, December 5, according to Famitsu and IGN.

The demo is said to feature two stages, playable offline or with online co-op. Unfortunately, the free demo will be temporarily restricted to paying Xbox Live Gold members, meaning that those who have created a Japanese Xbox Live Silver account to access region-specific content will not be able to immediately snag the demo.

No mention was made of the demo's inevitable North American release, or of a PlayStation 3 version. Shacknews has contacted Capcom for more details.

The latest entry in the survival horror franchise, Resident Evil 5 hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 13, with the Japanese version arriving a few days earlier on March 5.