Capcom has found a working formula that lets it keep Resident Evil active nearly every year while still investing in original projects. Producer Masachika Kawata, currently overseeing the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem, recently explained how the company’s remake strategy supports both goals.
In an interview with Game Informer, Kawata said producing a brand-new mainline Resident Evil game every single year would be extremely difficult. Remakes of older titles solve that problem. They allow Capcom to maintain a steady release cadence while giving the team room to refine its craft and generate the money needed for riskier work.
"One of the reasons for creating remakes is that producing a new entry in the Resident Evil series every year would be quite an undertaking and a difficult task," Kawata said. "So, being able to revisit older games and remake them helps Capcom meet that goal of releasing a Resident Evil title each year, but it also allows the team to continually challenge themselves and their craft."
He was careful to stress that the remakes are not treated as lesser products. "That’s not to say the remakes are any less important. In fact, they’re just as important as the mainline titles. Capcom is lucky enough to have found this cycle that can continue to provide us with the financial resources to create things like new entries in the Resident Evil series and completely new IPs like Pragmata. So the relationship is there."
Pragmata serves as a clear example of that reinvestment. The sci-fi action-adventure title was Capcom’s first major original IP in years and launched in April 2026 after a lengthy development period that included multiple delays. According to Kawata, the commercial success of the Resident Evil remakes helped make projects like it possible.
The same cycle is currently supporting Resident Evil Requiem, which is positioned as a new mainline entry, and the upcoming full reimagining of Code Veronica, scheduled for 2027 under the title Resident Evil Veronica. Kawata noted that the team is pouring its energy into these larger projects right now, which leaves little room for additional spin-offs. Recent attempts such as Resident Evil Resistance and Umbrella Corps failed to gain significant traction, reinforcing the decision to stay focused on higher-priority titles.
The approach has given Capcom a relatively consistent presence for the franchise over the past several years. Remakes of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4, alongside new entries such as Village and now Requiem, have kept the series visible while the company experiments with other ideas. Kawata’s comments frame the remakes as both a practical scheduling tool and a financial engine rather than simple nostalgia plays.
For players, the strategy means a steady stream of Resident Evil content that alternates between fresh stories and polished revisits of classics. For Capcom, it creates a self-sustaining loop: successful remakes fund the next wave of both mainline games and original IPs. As long as that loop continues to work, the company appears content to keep the current balance rather than spreading resources thinner across more experimental spin-offs.
Resident Evil Requiem is the next major test of the formula. If it performs in line with recent entries, the cycle Kawata described will likely continue, with remakes and new games feeding each other for the foreseeable future.
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