It’s no secret that Capcom loves its remakes. And what’s interesting is that they’re probably the company’s best games so far, with the likes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 completely revitalizing the franchise.
But now we know it for certain, as Resident Evil Requiem producer Masachika Kawata said in an interview with Vice that “[remakes] are just as important as the mainline series” and will be of tremendous value for Capcom, who now wants to turn RE into an annual franchise.
“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,” Kawata said. “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,” he added, affirming then that “they’re just as important as the mainline titles.”
Remakes are also a great way for Capcom to raise funds to create new RE titles as well as launch new IPs like Pragmata, Kawata said, but they come at the cost of the developers literally having no time to work on spinoffs like they used to. Remakes and new mainline entries are the entire focus, but Kawata said that Capcom is “lucky enough to have found this cycle.”
“Maybe there are a lot of people out there who would like to see more spinoff titles or such, but honestly, the team is giving everything it has right now, working on things like our new entries like Requiem or remakes,” he explained.
Next year, 2027, will be occupied by at least Resident Evil Veronica, a reimagining more than a remake of the classic Resident Evil: Code Veronica from 2000. Furthermore, we’re expecting to see a DLC for Resident Evil Requiem and will probably get at least a couple more remakes in 2028 and 2029 before 2030 gives us a Resident Evil 10.
So far, Capcom has had a ~4-5 year gap between mainline entries (2017, 2021, 2026), so I wouldn’t bet on there being a new proper RE title before the next decade rolls around.
