Resident Evil 8 ‘will release in 2021 with serious series departures’

A first-person Resident Evil 8 will release in 2021 and feature “serious departures” from other mainline entries.

That’s according to info provided by credited insider Dusk Golem and verified by VGC, which points to a release on current and next-gen consoles next year.

Like 2017’s Resident Evil 7, the 2021 game will feature a first-person perspective and a return for the previous game’s protagonist, Ethan Winters.

However, the game will feature many narrative and mechanical departures for the series, including hallucination and insanity segments, as well as enemies based on mythical creatures such as Werewolves.

As revealed by Dusk Golem, the game was originally intended to be a third entry in Resident Evil’s spin-off series Revelations. However, following positive feedback from Capcom’s testing department it was decided that the game would be transitioned into a mainline instalment.

Resident Evil 8 would mark the third consecutive annual release for the series, following this month’s Resident Evil 3 remake and 2019’s Resident Evil 2.

• Related: Resident Evil 3 review – Capcom delivers a short, but action-packed remake

In recent years Capcom has successfully focused on creating new games in its existing franchises. Resident Evil 2, released in January 2019, “exceeded expectations” with sales approaching six million units.

Devil May Cry 5, released in March 2019, shipped two million units in a matter of weeks. And 2018’s Monster Hunter: World is the company’s single best-selling game ever.

You have to go back to 2012’s Dragon’s Dogma for the last time Capcom created a wholly new game franchise.

It’s in stark contrast to the 2000s, when the company was known as a powerhouse of original games, with the likes Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Monster Hunter, Dead Rising and Lost Planet all arriving during a decade when it was less risky to launch new IP.

In 2013 the company did announce the dungeon crawler Deep Down, however sources recently indicated to VGC that the title was shelved despite being in a ‘near-complete state’.

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