A new leak claims that Capcom was originally developing Resident Evil 9 as an open-world multiplayer title. Yeah, your eyes aren’t deceiving you! Apparently, RE9 has undergone several changes in direction and was initially going to star both Leon and Jill. If I’m being honest, though, I kind of don’t hate the concept of an open-world zombie multiplayer game (RIP State of Decay).
We Could Have Gotten A ‘Re9’ Multiplayer, Supposedly
Like all RE9 rumors, take this one with a grain of salt. That said, if you’re a Capcom fan, you’ve likely heard of Dusk Golem before. The prolific insider has a long history of accurately leaking information about games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. On May 22, the insider posted some interesting information about Resident Evil 9 on Twitter, claiming that RE9 was actually going to be a multiplayer title at one point.
“So RE9 originally started development in 2017 (Andi says 2016/2017, but it was in early 2017 after RE7 underperformed at launch to Capcom’s expectations. RE7 went on to have a huge tail in sales, but this was a bit reactionary. And the original version of RE9 was trying to be the opposite of RE7, IE big open world multiplayer game). RE9 originally starred Leon & Jill in a fictional island based off Singapore.”
Fans of Resident Evil 4 will be in for a treat, as Dusk Golem added that Leon is still going to be the protagonist of Resident Evil 9. “AGAIN, this is the old RE9, the project got a pretty heavy reboot in 2021 around the time Village came out, though a few things stayed the same like Leon is still the main.” If all this is true, it’s pretty interesting that the game technically started development back in 2017, before getting a restart in 2021. Seems like Resident Evil 9 has had a bit of whiplash in terms of its direction.
An Open World ‘Resident Evil’ Multiplayer Actually Sounds Awesome
Okay, I know many of you are probably breathing a big sigh of relief over this news. But I actually would have been kind of down for a mainline Resident Evil multiplayer title. Like, if it were actually done right, it could have been a dream game. I was always a big fan of State of Decay, for instance, but I also always felt the survival horror title was a bit janky.
And whatever you want to say about Capcom, their games have been incredible over the last five years. Like, the actual quality of their games is stunning. So imagine an open-world zombie game using the Resident Evil 4 Remake engine and mechanics. Genuinely, I would have loved that. Of course, I understand most fans want a single-player story experience—which, to be fair, I also want as well.
Plus, the further the series moved away from its roots, the worse it got (Resident Evil 6 is still a bizarre anomaly that I can’t decide if I love or hate). But then again, Resident Evil Outbreak was actually really good. So, you know, I hope Capcom doesn’t entirely ditch the open-world multiplayer idea. Maybe it could be a side release instead? Pretty please?
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