Capcom’s Masachika Kawata has said that the Japanese software giant has nothing announce in regards to Resident Evil 7 at present, but has urged fans to ‘stay tuned’ for any news on the subject.
Speaking in the 600th issue of Dengeki PlayStation (via Siliconera), Kawata-san commented “We’re currently not at a state to talk about it… but please stay tuned.” He did, however, indicate that the next chapter in the multi-million selling survival horror series will bring back the horror elements that many fans feel were eschewed in recent titles—particularly as there have been many spin-offs in the franchise over the past few years.
“Since there’s been more spinoff titles, I can see how it can be perceived in such a way. And of course I believe that we should produce titles that bring out the horror. I’m thinking about it and also preparing for it," he commented.
Resident Evil 7 has yet to be formally announced, although rumors of the game’s development have been doing the rounds for a few years now. In addition, there has been much chatter online about the series installing more of a horror vibe for its next outing, although the same was said about Resident Evil 5 and 6—which didn’t exactly go down a storm with fans.
Resident Evil 7 was first outed on a LinkedIn profile for a costume designer based in Los Angeles two years ago, and was rumored for an E3 2014 reveal, which obviously didn’t happen. Earlier this year, Resident Evil Revelations 2 Producer, Michiteru Okabe, said he was confident the horror sequel would ‘blow our minds’ when it eventually sees the light of day.
While Capcom has yet to officially announce plans for the next chapter in the franchise, it’s still going to be a busy time for Resident Evil fans over the next couple of months, as the series celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2016. The company is already planning to release two titles next year, namely the high-definition remake of Resident Evil Zero and the all-new spin-off title, Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps. We’re just speculating at this point, but it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Capcom would use the 20th anniversary to lift the lid on Resident Evil 7, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Resident Evil is Capcom’s biggest-selling video game franchise to date, having moved 61 million copies since its inception in 1996. The original game—known as Biohazard in its native Japan—was directed by Shinji Mikami and was responsible for imprinting the survival horror genre onto the public consciousness, building upon the success of Alone in the Dark before it. The game was remade for GameCube in 2002 and later received a HD re-release on modern game consoles earlier this year.
Capcom is working on a full remake of Resident Evil 2, the critically acclaimed 1998 sequel that established the franchise a multi-million selling brand and catapulted the zombie-horror brand to mainstream success. Why not give our feature a read and see if there’s anything you didn’t know about Resident Evil 2 while you wait for the remake?