Resident Evil 7 Was Almost a Live Service Game With Microtransactions
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard was almost a live service game filled with microtransactions according to Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi.
Speaking with horror game veteran Shinji Mikami (and spotted by VGC), Takeuchi said there was a big marketing push at Capcom to make a game that “players are asking for”. At the time, this meant making a game with live service features, microtransactions, and other online elements.
“We were being told ‘make this, make that’,” Takeuchi said. “It was really hard on the directors at the time. Online multiplayer this, downloadable content that. Ongoing service games. Microtransactions. ‘Make a Resident Evil game that ticks all those boxes [they were told]’.”
There were so many demands placed on the directors that Capcom president Kenzo Tsujimoto eventually intervened. He called Takeuchi to say the current state of Resident Evil 7 was not good.
When Takeuchi joined the development team, he also wanted to appoint Koshi Nakanishi as the game’s director, saying that he was the best one on staff at the time.
“First, we decided that Resident Evil’s roots are in horror. We talked about it a lot,” Takeuchi said. “The idea of multiplayer got killed off pretty quickly. If we could properly put it together we could make an exciting horror multiplayer game, but we didn’t really have any good ideas so we set it aside.
“We went down the list, chopping them out until we had marketing’s worst nightmare: a regular old single-player horror game. That’s what we ended up with. What we ultimately wanted to make was exactly what you were saying, Mikami-san: a game that’s scary for the players and the creators.”
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard wound up garnering good review scores and bringing the series back to form, however. In our Resident Evil 7 Biohazard review, IGN said, “Resident Evil 7 grounds itself in elements that made the original great while still indulging in a risky new shift in style that both helps and hurts the beloved formula in equal measure.”
Speaking of multiplayer though, Capcom’s newest attempt, Resident Evil Re:Verse, will finally launch on October 28 after being delayed multiple times. It was originally intended to release alongside Resident Evil Village last year.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey
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