Resident Evil 7 Was Nearly A Live-Service Game
Veteran Resident Evil developers Shinji Mikami and Jun Takeuchi recently sat down to discuss 25 years of developing various games in the franchise (as reported by VGC). According to their discussion, Resident Evil 7 was originally planned as a live-service game. Takeuchi mentioned that there was a 'big marketing push' at Capcom happening simultaneously.
Resident Evil 7 launched in 2017 and was the first game to use Capcom’s RE engine. It's also one of the best-selling games in the series' history, paving the way for Resident Evil Village. It also recently received current-gen upgrades for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. But it was nearly a much different step for the series, embracing a growing modern game trend.
RELATED: Resident Evil Shouldn't Leave The First-Person Perspective Behind
“We have to make games players are asking for. So, we were being told to ‘make this, make that’. It was really hard on the directors at the time. ‘Online Multiplayer’ this, ‘downloadable content’ that, ‘Ongoing services game’, microtransactions!” Takeuchi said. Capcom had basically asked the devs to develop a Resident Evil title that checked all these boxes. Takeuchi even mentioned that there were just too many demands by the management and that he also felt bad for the directors. Eventually, Capcom president Kenzo Tsujimoto had to intervene to rectify the situation after hearing about the problems the game was facing.
Takeuchi recalled the conversation with Tsujimoto, “It was January 4, the first working day of the year, the president called me to his office. ‘Resident Evil 7 is in pretty bad shape. Takeuchi-kun, step in and help make it!’ So that’s how I ended up working on RE 7”. He also mentioned how they pushed for Koshi Nakanishi to be
Read more on thegamer.com
