North American gamers who may have felt left out in the cold when Capcom announced a Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition at this summer's Tokyo Game Show can now breathe easy. The supplemental material for one of 2009's biggest survival horror titles is headed to not only America, but Europe as well.

News comes directly from Capcom that the additions to the core game will be available via download for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Spring of 2010. Gamers were given a choice (via the company's regional websites) as to how they wanted to procure this new content--and apparently digital download beat out the more traditional "buy it on disc". No pricing details have been revealed, but they should be coming soon.

If you missed the news at the Tokyo Game Show, we know the Alternative Edition will take advantage of the PS3's motion controller--which is due out in spring as well (it seems unlikely that 360 owners will be able to take advantage of this feature). The big selling point, however, is the ability to play as Jill Valentine in a new segment wherein she and Chris Redfield infiltrate the mansion belonging to the founder of Umbrella Corp. These segments were shown as flashbacks in the original version, but will be fully playable now.

Keep reading for what director Jun Takeuchi has to say about the project after the jump.
"We put a lot more effort into it for this release," Takeuchi tells Famitsu magazine (thanks to 1Up.com for reprinting portions of the interview online). "The new content starts with the two of them arriving at the entrance to Spencer's house, and I think a lot of it will be amusingly familiar to fans of the very first game."

When asked how long it would take gamers to beat the new DLC, Takeuchi offered up this observation. ""Jill's episode alone takes me about an hour and 40 minutes to play through, and I'm not that bad a player. For first-timers, I'd guess it would take two hours or so. It's a brand-new release, though, so we're going to release it with more content than that."

More content? What could it possibly be? Capcom hasn't said, but we'll keep you updated as details emerge.