Capcom's recent and upcoming game slates look good with titles like Monster Hunter Wilds, a remaster of Onimusha 2, and the new Onimusha: Way of the Sword, but there is a notable name missing from these proceedings. Resident Evil 9 has been spoken of online for years, especially since the launch of Resident Evil Village in 2021, and the subsequent release of Resident Evil 4’s remake in 2023, but it still hasn't been officially announced. While Capcom's work on Resident Evil 9 behind the scenes is a given, by 2025, it feels like some news concerning it is long overdue.
Allegedly, Resident Evil 9 is an open world title running on the RE Engine, and was internally considered to be part of an open world batch of games consisting of itself, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Dragon's Dogma 2. Now that the latter two games are out and Onimusha, historically considered a sister series to Resident Evil, is back, news of the next mainline Resident Evil installment should be just around the corner. According to a May 2025 leak from an established source, there is a reason for all of this, even though what it truly means for Resident Evil 9 remains to be seen.
The Perfect Release Window For Resident Evil 9 is Clear as Day
With some recent news about the franchise, Capcom may now have the optimum release date for the eagerly awaited Resident Evil 9.
Unpacking Resident Evil 9’s Latest Leak
Dusk Golem, also known as AestheticGamer, is a well-known Capcom insider from X, even if they’ve held back on actually leaking games in recent years. Still, they have expressed an interest in behind-the-scenes game development stories, and that is the form their latest information took on May 22. According to Dusk Golem, most of the Resident Evil 9 rumors that have cropped up over the past few years are untrue, but a few are merely outdated. Resident Evil 9 has taken an unknown form after a development reset, and the details of this make up the bulk of this new leak.
How Leaks Describe The History Of Resident Evil 9
The original Resident Evil 9 allegedly began development in early 2017, after Resident Evil 7’s launch sales had disappointed Capcom, but before its long tail picked up and made it a big hit. RE9 was conceived as a direct response to the apparent failure of RE7’s first-person horror focus, with the series seemingly returning to the co-op formula of Resident Evil 5 and 6. This time, RE veterans Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine were supposed to embark on an open-world multiplayer adventure set on a fictional island based on Singapore. A “pretty heavy” reboot interrupted that in 2021 around the launch of RE Village, and that's where the story ends for now.
What Resident Evil 9’s Reboot Could Mean
Rebooting Could Be Just What RE9 Needed
Some other details Dusk Golem revealed were that Leon is still the main character of RE9, and a Resident Evil Revelations 3 starring Rebecca was canceled in 2022, but the main takeaway is that four years ago, Resident Evil 9 reset. Four years of development since then, with some assets and gameplay ideas already present, is decent progress for a modern AAA game, enough that fans could potentially see a teaser within the next year, but it's a huge delay for a project supposedly started in 2017. RE9 is coming along, but it isn't in a hurry.
It could be argued that feeling less pressure is both the main cause and benefit of Resident Evil 9’s reboot. Resident Evil 7 and RE Village have proven capable of keeping the series afloat, as have the remakes of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4. There's no need for RE9 to chase trends or mold its identity around reacting to a prior entry, because the issues it originally responded to no longer exist. For fans, this also comes with the downside of Resident Evil 9’s status being a total mystery, but as Dusk Golem insinuated, Capcom can reveal the game on its own time.
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Publisher(s)
- Capcom
- Franchise
- Resident Evil
