Resident Evil Village Has Been In Development For 3.5 Years

As has been the case with all mainline Resident Evil releases in the past few years, it seems like gap between Resident Evil Village’s announcement and its release won’t be a very large one. Announced last month at the PS5 reveal event, the game is due out in 2021, with Capcom recently saying in an interview with Famitsu that the game’s development is roughly 60% done at this point. But how long has it been in development?

During the same interview (translated by @cvxfreak on Twitter), the developers said that Resident Evil Village has been in development for three and a half years. More specifically, the game entered the planning stage three and a half years ago, after which one would assume it would have been in pre-production for a while. Reports have indicated that it originally started development as Resident Evil Revelations 3, but was repurposed into the next mainline game after strong internal reception, leading to significant reworking to align with the game’s new nature.

In the interview, the developers also briefly talked about a few gameplay mechanics, saying that inventory management is going to be an important system (as you’d expect from a Resident Evil game) and that puzzles and exploration will also feature (a recent rumour said the game has more exploration than any other in the series). Meanwhile, the developers also talked about the benefits of developing for next-gen hardware, and the improvements that have been to visuals, sound, and load times.

Resident Evil Village is due out in 2021 for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Q1. It's been 2.5 months since RE:3 and we're surprised to see another numbered title announced already. How long has the game been in development?

A1. It's been 3.5 years since we began planning the title.

— Alex Aniel (@cvxfreak) July 1, 2020

Q9. You showed the inventory screen in the Special Developer Message. Looks like RE4's attache case! (I filled it with eggs back in the day). We're looking forward to item management!

A9. Can't go into detail but inventory management is very important! Please look forward to it.

— Alex Aniel (@cvxfreak) July 1, 2020

Q12. There's a screen w/ a door that looks like a puzzle. We're intrigued; are solving mysteries an indispensable part of RE?

A13. On top of fear, combat & item management, exploration is a must in RE. Solving puzzles is definitely in; it expands the breadth of the gameplay.

— Alex Aniel (@cvxfreak) July 1, 2020