Capcom Finally Confirms What Resident Evil Fans Have Known for Years

Resident Evil has always been one of the benchmark games of the horror genre, but it’s also struggled when attempting to adapt a different style of gameplay. Going back to Resident Evil‘s debut in 1996 on the PlayStation, the series has always had a knack for isolating characters and forcing them into an intense survival-horror experience, often by overwhelming them with monsters, undead, or commandos. The best entries in the series are the ones that best terrify the player, often by leaning into fundamentals of the horror genre.

However, Capcom has repeatedly tested the waters for a more multiplayer-heavy experience. The result has been mixed at best and has failed more consistently than succeeded. That’s what makes a recent revelation about the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem all the more surprising — and the news that it has abandoned the more multiplayer elements for something more traditional all the more exciting.

Resident Evil Requiem Was Almost A Multiplayer Game

According to Resident Evil Requiem producer Masato Kumazawa, the ninth mainline entry in the classic horror series actually began development as a very different kind of game — namely, an open-ended multiplayer title. During an interview with Press Start Australia, Kumazawa revealed that the game has actually been in development for six years ahead of its planned release in February of 2026. However, while the team’s original idea for a multiplayer experience resulted in entertaining gameplay, the team ultimately realized the title just didn’t feel like a Resident Evil title.

Explaining that the multiplayer was fun but that as a result “the horror part was very mild,” Kumazawa and the rest of the team took a fresh look at the project and tweaked it accordingly. “We looked deeply into this game and wondered if a fan of the franchise would really like this, so we thought they would probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much. That’s the reason we made it back into single player. But because it was fun, we added elements from that build to the final game to ensure it was fun… “I believe fans of the franchise want is survival horror and being scared. That is the number one thing that fans want. So by saying that, we can’t just slap on new skins and new characters and give you the same experience. It wouldn’t be that good.”

Kumazawa revealed that some gameplay mechanics from it will be a more traditional single-player experience. It’s hard to imagine, especially given how strong the franchise has been lately thanks to titles like Biohazard and Village, that the creatives would shift gears and tackle multiplayer. It’s also especially strange because Resident Evil has already tried — and failed — to take the concept into a multiplayer direction.

Resident Evil’s Multiplayer Past Hasn’t Worked Out

Over the years, Resident Evil has struggled to fit multiplayer into its typically single-player experiences. While the tense tone and horrific twists are especially effective on players who are fighting the undead hordes on their own, having two, three, or even four other players along for the ride can undercut the tension. Despite this, Capcom has tried to make multiplayer Resident Evil work on multiple occasions, only to fall short each time. The co-op modes for the more action-heavy entries of the series, like Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, speak to this problem, with the games featuring ally characters that undercut the tension by being around to provide assistance to the player.

While other games had found the right level of restraint in that approach to keep the tension high while occasionally providing assistance, Resident Evil 5 is almost entirely defanged because of the presence of a second commando offering help and covering fire. Other online approaches to the franchise have also struggled. The “Mercenaries” competitive modes included in some titles are typically fun, but they stack up as well to other multiplayer shooting games that are specifically designed with more depth in their combat.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City suffered from lackluster game design. Before that, 2004’s Resident Evil Outbreak tried to give an entire squad of players the chance to confront the hordes together, only to suffer from lackluster level design and forgettable challenges. Even potentially interesting ideas like Resident Evil: Resistance or Resident Evil Re:Verse struggled with tropes of the modern multiplayer space and didn’t connect with players.

Why Resident Evil Shouldn’t Be Multiplayer

Horror games are a tricky beast. While games like Dead by Daylight, Phasmophobia, Left 4 Dead, and other titles have found the right balance of player tension and multiplayer interaction, horror games are typically best executed as solo stories. This allows them to lean into the solitary feeling of being alone in a dangerous situation, isolating the player in a deadly world. Even having a single other character on hand to assist for much of the gameplay undercuts that potential.

The best Resident Evil games have all leaned into that sense of solitary danger. The first game split the STARS team up and separated them throughout the Spencer Mansion, leaving players to explore the setting alone. Resident Evil 4 sets players on a mission to rescue the President’s daughter, quickly killing off any potential backup to leave the player as the only action hero with the potential to save the day. Biohazard and Village both used the player character’s relative lack of help to darken the tone and raise the tension. Resident Evil is best when it’s tense, giving players the ability to fight back against a threat they will likely have to run away from.

Multiplayer games encourage a level of problem-solving and natural levity that don’t fit as easily into the franchise and throw off many of the more engaging elements of the game’s horrific twists and tones. The fact that the more multiplayer-heavy entries in the series have never quite landed with the fanbase should be proof enough to Capcom that fans don’t want multiplayer Resident Evil adventures as much as they want Resident Evil to be effectively scary, meaning it’s a good thing Requiem‘s development team realized what the fanbase actually wants in a new game.