New Resident Evil game confirmed, with the director of Resi 7 at the helm

Implicit violence and gore

Capcom spat a little squirt of news bile on us yesterday, like a hideous zombie vomiting up demos and release dates. One of the smaller chunks was a brief comment by Resident Evil 7 director Koshi Nakanishi, who confirmed that a new Resident Evil game is in the works. That's not too much of a surprise - big franchise gonna franchise - but still, it's nice to hear. "It was really difficult to figure out what to do after [Resident Evil] 7," he said, "but I found it. And to be honest it feels substantial."

We did not get more information than that, unfortunately. The quick and easy assumption to make is that this will be Resident Evil 9, or whatever the developers decide to call it. But Nakanishi stops short of saying this outright. Considering there are unconfirmed rumours that claim both Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil - Code: Veronica will be getting remakes, I feel iffy about jumping to conclusions about exactly which Resi this heavyweight director will be lending his overseership to. It probably is number 9, which has seen its own leaks and is reportedly called Resident Evil 9: Revenant Shadows. But still, no official confirmation of that.

Elsewhere in the Capcom Next broadcast, Nakanishi reminisced about Resident Evil 7's shift away from action and back to horror.

"When we first started development [on Resi 7], Resident Evil was... well, if I'm being honest, as a brand we were off-track. The action element had been expanded and fans reacted much more negatively than expected. In the end an RE game has to be scary... the general consensus from fans of the series was that a Resident Evil game is one that should scare the hell out of you. That was the starting point for Resident Evil 7."

If Nakanishi is heading development of Resident Evil 9, my hope is that he continues to push the team back into the dark realm of horror. Resident Evil Village was interesting, but I found it much more shooty than expected, especially after the seventh game's hobbled houseboundness. Then again, I like my horror slow and creepy. I'd be happy if a Resi game came out with, like, three monsters in it. So long as it was dark and tense.

PC-loyal Resi fans desirous of the classics have seen some good news recently, now that the original 1996 Resident Evil is available to download on PC for the first time. And ye olde Resi 2 and 3 are coming soon, according to placeholder pages at GOG. No word on Resident Evil - Code: Veronica though, which holds the distinguished honour of being the only Resident Evil game with my granny's name in the title.