Thursday afternoon, Capcom held its latest Resident Evil Showcase event. The online presentation featured several bit announcements about upcoming Resident Evil projects, with a focus on Resident Evil Village. One of the biggest surprises of the event had nothing to do with Resident Evil 8, however. Rather, divide that number in two to get Resident Evil 4, instead. Capcom announced that Resident Evil 4 is currently being ported to virtual reality for the Oculus Quest 2 platform.
Details are unfortunately thin regarding the virtual reality port of Resident Evil 4, at least for the time being. What's confirmed is that Resident Evil 4 will support first-person virtual reality via the Facebook headset, which isn't a first for the franchise, but still hints at Capcom's continued support for virtual reality. The Oculus Quest being exclusively mentioned is also notable, as the only virtual reality version of a Resident Evil game, Resident Evil 7, is exclusive to PlayStation VR. There could be more platform support announced later.
The nature of the port isn't entirely clear at this point. As in, it isn't clear how much of Resident Evil 4 is being changed for its virtual reality port. Early gameplay of Resident Evil 4 in VR shows that some changes have been made, such as how the player wields both the knife and weapons with ease. Interactive objects are also handled differently, as is the game's Tetris-like inventory. But how far the changes go isn't entirely clear. It may be a straight port with adjustments made for VR, or it could be a surprising upgrade.
Luckily, Resident Evil fans won't have to wait much longer for more information. Capcom says more will be shared at an upcoming online Oculus Gaming Showcase event. Facebook will be hosting the event on April 21 at 3:00 pm PT. The event can be streamed on the official Oculus channels on Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube.
While the Resident Evil 4 virtual reality port announcement was one of the biggest surprises of the Resident Evil Showcase, it wasn't entirely a surprise. Oculus had promoted the event on social media before it started, leading many to speculate that Capcom had a virtual reality surprise up its sleeve.
Resident Evil 4 was also on the minds of Resident Evil fans going into today's show. The major Capcom leaks from the past several months revealed what's believed to be a full Resident Evil 4 remake. However, there have been rumors that the project has been delayed significantly. Hopefully, fans will be content with Resident Evil 4 in VR until Capcom is ready to share more news about its future Resident Evil plans.
Resident Evil 4 VR releases in 2021 on Oculus Quest 2.