Capcom’s Masachika Kawata has commented on why we’ve been seeing a bunch of Resident Evil remakes over the past few years, but not so much in the way of spin-offs.

You could easily make the case that we’re in a golden age with Resident Evil right now. New games have been a hit with fans and critics alike. In between those releases, Capcom is bringing out fantastic remakes of prior entries in the series.

Kawata explained in this month’s issue of Game Informer that remakes are a good way to keep the franchise going regularly. He also said “it also allows the team to continually challenge themselves and hone their craft.”

Kawata noted:

“One of the reasons for creating remakes is producing a new entry in the Resident Evil series every year would be quite an undertaking and a difficult task. 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 hone their craft. 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 IP like Pragmata. So there is that relationship there.”

There’s not much to complain about if you’re a Resident Evil fan, but it’s true that there haven’t been a lot of spin-offs.  Kawata said this ultimately comes down to a lack of resources with developers concentrated elsewhere.

As Kawata pointed out:

“Maybe there are a lot of people out there who would like to see more spinoff titles or such, but honestly, the team is giving everything it has right now, working on things like our new entries like Requiem or remakes. So honestly, at the moment, that’s where our efforts [are] being focused. We are so focused on pouring our energy into that, I don’t think there’s a whole lot left right now for a spinoff.”

Resident Evil Requiem came out earlier this year and you can play it on Nintendo Switch 2 right now. The system is also getting Resident Evil Veronica, a remake, in 2027 – we have full details here.

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