Capcom revealed the next installment in the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil Requiem, on Friday at Summer Game Fest as the livestream’s closing announcement, following a swerve by the dev team earlier in the show.
Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom says, will take the franchise back to its origins: Raccoon City. The ninth mainline Resident Evil promises “deeply terrifying aspects of psychological horror with pulse-pounding action,” Capcom says, and “spine-chilling realism like never before, with complex character details like lifelike facial expressions, realistic skin textures, and even high-fidelity sweat droplets that are sure to keep players on the edge of their seats.”
The game follows Grace Ashcroft (related to Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil Outbreak) as an FBI agent tasked to look into an incident at a hotel where her mother was previously murdered (although Alyssa is mentioned, there’s no telling if she’s Grace’s mom). In the game’s trailer, Grace’s boss says it’s time for her to confront her past before the scene cuts to her bound upside down in a dark room.
From there we see corridors familiar to the Raccoon City mansion before getting ominous words from a shadowy figure in a chair insisting Grace is special, a “chosen one.” We also see the remnants of Raccoon City with the bomb mark that took it out and a destroyed Raccoon City police department. Needless to say, although the franchise will continue its long-running story, this title looks to be very much a return to form for RE’s survival horror origins.
Survival horror fans have been anticipating news on the next Resident Evil for a while now. The most recent new mainline Resident Evil entry was 2021’s Resident Evil Village, a direct sequel to 2017’s Resident Evil 7 biohazard. Shifting further into action, Village emphasized combat against relentless waves of undead creatures. Since then, Capcom has released its ambitious remake of Resident Evil 4.
Similar to the rumor mill reports, Requiem looks to be a reimagining of the series with an evolution of concepts first introduced in the original Resident Evil, with more focus on horror over action. Rumors also suggest it will serve as both a conclusion to current story arcs and a fresh starting point for the franchise’s future, and the teaser certainly enforces this notion.
Resident Evil Requiem is slated for a Feb. 27, 2026 release, with more info to be revealed the closer we get to the launch date.
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