Resident Evil 7’s VR Compatibility Drove Up Development Costs

Resident Evil 7 will have a VR mode, which seems to be very exciting- after all, VR seems to be ideally suited to horror games. In their new investor Q&A, Capcom revealed that the new VR compatibility was actually one of the things that ended up driving the development costs of the upcoming game.

“Certain things were required in making the game VR-compatible, such as graphic needs that are more complex than before, thus there was an increase in development investment,” Capcom explain in the Q&A. However, they go on to also emphasize that the tools they used for this helped keep costs to a minimum, too.

“We believe we have succeeded in optimizing our development process via fundamental technologies including our 3D scanning system, lighting and shading, which allowed us to minimize additional costs while achieving high-quality development.”

Resident Evil 7 is due out in January 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.