Resident Evil Requiem’s director has confirmed that rumours about RE9 starting as an online open-world title are true, but the team ultimately scrapped that idea.
Resident Evil Requiem’s development team recently appeared during the Capcom Spotlight 2025 showcase, revealing more details about the upcoming game. At the showcase, the director also mentioned that Leon Kennedy was considered a “bad match for horror“. Now, more details have been revealed through an extended cut of the Creator’s Message.
Resident Evil Requiem Did Experiment With Online Open World Elements
The extended cut of the Creator’s Message from the Resident Evil Requiem developers is now available through the Resident Evil Portal. RE9’s producer, Masachika Kawata, first clarified that Resident Evil Requiem is an offline single-player game, and then discussed experimenting with various systems early in development. The director, Koshi Nakanishi, addressed the elephant in the room, asking the audience whether they might have heard the rumours about “Resident Evil Online” or an “open-world Resident Evil”.
Nakanishi then confirms that the team spent some time experimenting with online and open-world elements during the early stages of Resident Evil Requiem’s development. They also showcased some early build gameplay footage of the online aspects, featuring players teaming up to take on bosses, fight various types of hordes, and more. However, even though they had “some interesting concepts”, the team decided to scrap the idea as they realised this wasn’t something the “fans wanted to see or play”.
The core concept of the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem is “addictive fear”. The developers explain that “there’s something about the catharsis you get from overcoming your fears”, which ends up creating an “addiction that makes you want to do more, or play more”. Horror has also been one of the “most important aspects” of the series, which is why they wanted to make the “fear factor” a “key feature of the gameplay”.
In other news, Resident Evil Requiem has already crossed 1 million wishlists. Interested readers can check out Insider Gaming’s thoughts on the RE9 Preview. What are your thoughts on Resident Evil Requiem experimenting with online and open-world elements early in development? Let us know below and join the official Insider Gaming forums discussion.
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