In a lengthy social media post thread reminiscing about the development of Resident Evil 7, Capcom’s former senior manager of global production, Miguel Corti, has revealed some interesting details. One of the key things Conti discussed in the since-deleted posts (via GamesRadar) is that Capcom changed its development plan for Resident Evil 7 after seeing the critical acclaim garnered by Naughty Dog for the original The Last of Us.
Conti also revealed that, in a previous iteration of Resident Evil 7, the company was taking cues from the Call of Duty franchise, and as such, the horror game’s story would have been marked by bombastic action and epic set pieces. The shooter franchise being known for its Zombies mode at the time may have played a role as well. However, having played The Last of Us, members of the development team decided to focus on the title’s narrative instead.
“It may surprise you to learn that the originally planned RE7 went through a few iterations. Instead of taking cues from CoD, they were all coming from The Last of Us, with even a mandate to focus on narrative, since that seemed like the only rationale to make single-player games anymore.”
Call of Duty was a likely choice to draw inspiration from for the Resident Evil franchise since the previous mainline entry – 2012’s Resident Evil 6 – was the best-selling game in the series at the time, and focused quite a bit more on action elements rather than the survival horror that the franchise was originally known for. With the 2017 release of Resident Evil 7, Capcom has entered what many consider to be a new golden era for the company thanks to back-to-back critically acclaimed games that have also gone on to sell quite well.
The strategy to focus on narrative ended up working quite well, and Resident Evil 7 would be followed up with Resident Evil Village, which would bring the story of Ethan Winters to an end. Most recently, the series told an entirely new story with Resident Evil Requiem, opting to go with dual protagonists – franchise veteran Leon S. Kennedy and newcomer Grace Ashcroft. The title went on to garner incredible amounts of critical acclaim, and has even managed to dominate the sales charts until relatively recently.
Looking forward, Capcom currently has an expansion for Resident Evil Requiem in development. However, the company hasn’t yet revealed any details about it. A new entry – Resident Evil Veronica – has also been confirmed, and is slated to be released in 2027. The title will be a remake of 2000’s Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, which fills in quite a few of the gaps in the overarching narrative when it comes to the whereabouts of Chris and Claire Redfield following the events of the first two Resident Evil games.
Capcom’s strategy of releasing remakes between major new entries in the Resident Evil franchise has also worked quite well, with Resident Evil 4 Remake being particularly noteworthy in how many copies it has sold since its 2023 release. For more details about these remakes, check out our review of their Nintendo Switch 2 versions. And in the meantime, take a look at our thoughts about Resident Evil Requiem’s planned expansion.
