Resident Evil 4 Remake Reportedly in Development

A report from VGC and other sources suggests that Capcom has begun development on a Resident Evil 4 remake.

These reports claim that the plan is for the recently formed M-Two studio (which was founded by former PlatinumGames CEO, Tatsuya Minami, and is backed by Capcom) to handle the bulk of this remake’s development. However, it’s been indicated that members of the Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 teams may assist in the development of this remake as well. Capcom has utilized a similar “co-op” style of development with the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, so it makes sense that they would stick with that approach for this project.

It’s also been stated that director Shinji Mikami declined the opportunity to lead this remake team, but he has reportedly given the remake his blessing and will assist with its development somewhat in what seems to be an advisory capacity. Early information suggests that Capcom hopes to release the Resident Evil 4 remake sometime in 2022.

As always, it’s important to remind everyone that this information is based on a report and has not been confirmed by anyone at Capcom at this time. On that same note, there has been no word regarding this remake’s gameplay details or how it may alter or improve the original title from a visual, narrative, or gameplay perspective.

That is certainly the hottest point of discussion at the moment, though. Capcom’s remakes of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3 were all not only generally well-received by fans but were typically seen as “justified” by many of those same fans who felt the originals could certainly benefit from various improvements and changes.

Resident Evil 4 is a slight different story. There’s no doubt Capcom could remake the game and significantly improve its visuals, but there are many who feel that Resident Evil 4‘s gameplay has actually aged fairly well over the years. The Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes even utilized elements of that tile’s “over-the-shoulder” gameplay perspective.

That being the case, you could certainly argue that games like Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica are more in need of a remake. Yet, as we noted in our retrospective on Resident Evil 4, that title did sacrifice some of the survival horror elements of the original games in the series in favor of a slightly more action-oriented and cinematic approach. Considering that the most recent Resident Evil remakes utilized more of those old-school survival elements in combination with Resident Evil 4‘s combat alterations, a remake of Resident Evil 4 in that style could prove to be just different enough to justify this project.

Then again, given some of the ways that the Resident Evil 3 remake suffered from its similarities to the Resident Evil 2 remake, we kind of hope that the team uses this extra development time to come up with a slightly different approach that somehow finds a way to breathe new life into a game that does hold up quite well.