Capcom is actively pushing to release Resident Evil games yearly whether that be remakes or content rich DLC. Believe it or not the company has been doing just this as you can see from the table down below, thanks to the studios remakes of older Resident Evil games and the mainline entries. Here’s what Resident Evil Requiem producer, Masachika Kawata, had to say about their plans.
“One of the reasons for creating remakes is producing a new entry in the Resident Evil series every year would be quite an undertaking and a difficult task. So, being able to revisit older games and remake them helps Capcom meet that goal of releasing a Resident Evil title each year, but it also allows the team to continually challenge themselves and hone their craft. That’s not to say the remakes are any less important. In fact, they’re just as important as the mainline titles.”
| Release year | Resident Evil game |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Resident Evil 2 |
| 2020 | Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil Resistance |
| 2021 | Resident Evil Village |
| 2022 | Resident Evil Re:Verse |
| 2023 | Resident Evil 4 |
| 2026 | Resident Evil Requiem |
| 2027 | Resident Evil Veronica |
Fun Fact: Most franchises technically are yearly. Like there is a zelda game almost every year if your including remasters and spin offs. But honestly, I feel like RE should take breaks. It makes it more special when a new entry releases.
As long as they aren’t rushing then this is fine.
As long as they can maintain or improve their level of quality, I wholeheartedly welcome it💯
The way things are going I’ll be able to play requiem and code Veronica on my switch 2 z lad edition
I get why they want to do that looking at the popularity and current numbers but it’s a short sighted approach that will end up backfiring. I already feel like a Resident Evil comes around too often and there are more than enough games to play where it’s not necessary. Do more unique stuff like Pragmata. Less is more
And this is how you kill a franchise. Too much of a good thing and all that. Other franchises started pumping out games more frequently too and then players stopped anticipating them as much and sales dropped and then the series goes into a 10-year hiatus as they hire people to figure out what went wrong and how to reinvigorate it… then that usually leads to “let’s remake the more popular ones” and then sales are strong then they think “let’s release them every year again since people are liking them again!” It’s a vicious cycle. Every 2-3 years is fine, it builds the hype and makes each one more special. Some games are fine with annual releases (music games, puzzle games, etc.) But mainline entries are usually best every couple or few years. Why are we getting Resident Evil every year and yet it’s been more than 10 years since we got a Breath Of Fire game? Nintendo did the same thing with Metroid, started releasing too many too often (with spinoffs) and then sales dropped and they stopped making them for years as a result.
Silent Hill did this, too (which is more comparable to Resident Evil). And now they’re kind of doing it again, and people are gonna get burned out and then we’ll have a dry spell again I bet. What’s nice is when we get them every couple/few years and then release some new franchises (or abandoned ones) in between.
It’s not always a bad thing, though, to be fair. I mean, it’s kind of like a TV show coming back every year for a new season (and RE games aren’t terribly long, so they’re kind of as long as a TV show’s season). But it’s also about cost, I don’t have to pay $80 a year to see a new season of a TV show, plus $80 each show for all the other TV shows I also want to watch. It just depends. I can anticipate a new season every year of a great show but some shows I got burned out (like AHS) when they were yearly and their quality dropped and after a while I just didn’t care or bother to watch.
This can be a dangerous road to go down. I feel like this can work temporarily as they have a lot of beloved prior games they can remaster, but to make ANY franchise a yearly franchise can start to allow fatigue set in and gameplay can become stale. Innovation comes with time and planning.
Capcom has given me every reason to believe in them though. If any developer can pull it off, it is them.