Capcom producer addresses concerns about Resident Evil spin-off Project Resistance

Capcom producer Matt Walker has responded to “a lot” of Resident Evil fans unhappy the company is trying something new with upcoming spin-off Project Resistance rather than focusing on the franchise’s established formula.

Announced on Thursday, Project Resistance is an asymmetric online multiplayer game combining cooperative and competitive dynamics.

In each 4v1 match, one Mastermind tracks four Survivors using a network of security cameras and sets traps to try and prevent them escaping an Umbrella facility.

“Been seeing a lot of people who are not pleased with the idea that we’re making Project Resistance,” Walker said on Twitter. “It’s totally valid that people want more of that quality core experience offered in RE2 and RE7.

“My take – we as a company need to continue to branch out and try to offer up new gameplay in addition to refining the experiences people expect from us. If we just continue to offer up the same thing over and over again, people will gradually lose interest with what we’re making.

“Project Resistance offers up a really interesting way to do that,” he continued. “The most important part? That it’s a great survival horror experience, if non-traditional. I think we confuse things when we make things related to IP that don’t actually stay true to the core spirit of the IP, but this project happily doesn’t fall into that trap.”

Walker also said he’s looking forward to fans getting hands-on with the game in the upcoming Project Resistance closed beta, which will run on PS4 and Xbox One in early October. RE Ambassadors and Xbox Insider Program members have until September 18 to register for a chance to participate.

“I can’t wait till the closed beta to have more people actually play it and see how it is a refreshing new take, but very surely survival horror at its core,” said Walker. “People who have played it have been positive, and I hope during CBT even more people will have fun playing it.

“We’re also earnestly trying to get feedback from people who have played it so we can actually make it better, which I feel is fairly rare from a publisher of our size. Based on that feedback, it could grow from a project to a fantastic game.”

Ryozo Tsujimoto, head of Capcom’s consumer games development division 2 and producer of the Monster Hunter series since 2007, has told VGC the publisher is “not giving up” on the idea of creating new original game series, despite its recent focus on successful core franchises like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter.