The Resident Evil franchise goes back decades! It’s wild to think that this next major installment, Resident Evil Requiem, is paying homage to those original games by going back where it all started. Raccoon City might be the destination now for the game, but at one point, this installment was drastically different. If you didn’t hear the rumors that came out back in the day, what we almost had in our hands was an open-world Resident Evil game.
There have been a few attempts at bringing some multiplayer Resident Evil games into the mix. Some have done well enough, while others are something that most fans would rather forget. Still, it wasn’t a venture that the Capcom development teams wanted just to give up on. Instead, they looked to deliver another multiplayer game for this latest installment. In the end, they decided it was best to pivot and provide something a little more traditional for the Resident Evil franchise.
Resident Evil Requiem Open World Multiplayer Origins
We may never get the full story of what happened and the original plans for this open-world multiplayer experience. However, Press Start did manage to get a tiny bit more information from a Resident Evil Requiem developer. The publication had the chance to sit down and speak with Masato Kumazawa, a producer behind the upcoming survival horror video game.
During the conversation, it was asked why the development team decided to scrap this project. The previous comments made by the developers were that they felt fans wouldn’t be thrilled about this game idea.
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.
That’s why we wanted to make sure we added new elements that ensured this feels like a new survival horror game.
So that remains true in the eyes of Masato Kumazawa. It seems that there was a fear that most fans wouldn’t find this game to bring a true survival horror experience. Hopefully, they made the right choice, and this installment goes on to be a massive hit for fans who have been waiting and itching to get back to Raccoon City, finally.
That said, some elements from the original open-world multiplayer build remain. We don’t know exactly what remains of this game from the original game project Capcom was building. However, there were some ideas that the team felt warranted a spot in this upcoming installment.
Looking at the game when it was multiplayer, the horror part was very mild. However, in that build, we made a game that was fun to play. But 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.
Fortunately, we don’t have too long a wait before we can dive into this installment for ourselves. Currently, Resident Evil Requiem is set to launch on February 27, 2026. When this game is released into the marketplace, we’ll find it available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms.
