Capcom is determined to bring the Resident Evil games to every video game platform imaginable. This Halloween season, it's expanding the Nintendo Switch's Resident Evil library with the addition of Resident Evil 5 and 6, which are coming to the Switch on October 29. Capcom has released demos for Resident Evil 5 and 6 ahead of the games' launch on the Nintendo Switch, but they have left fans concerned about the games' performance.
Digital Foundry has tested the Resident Evil 5 and 6 Switch demos, and have found that the games have performance issues on the platform. It seems as though Resident Evil 5 and 6 struggle to maintain their frame rate on the Switch whenever the action gets too hectic. The games manage to maintain a high resolution, but some fans may prefer that frame rate was given priority instead.
What's strange about this is that the Nintendo Switch runs more technically-demanding games without frame rate issues. So it's not necessarily a case of the Switch lacking the power of running these games at a high level. It's possible that the Resident Evil 5 and 6 Switch ports just didn't spend enough time in development for the developers to fully optimize them for Nintendo's handheld/home console hybrid.
Of course, it's worth pointing out that the full versions of the games may run better than the demo versions. There's a chance that the Resident Evil 5 and 6 demos on the Switch are based on older versions of the game that have since been improved. However, we really have no way of knowing that until the full games launch later this month.
While some Nintendo Switch fans may be disappointed to learn that Resident Evil 5 and 6 may have performance issues on the platform, others will still be happy that they can take even more Resident Evil games on the go. Capcom has previously brought over classics like the Resident Evil HD remaster, Resident Evil Zero, and of course, Resident Evil 4. Japan received a streaming-only version of Resident Evil 7 as well, though there doesn't appear to be any plans to bring that game stateside.
The Resident Evil 7 Switch version also had some technical problems, so hopefully Capcom is able to iron out any lingering issues with the Resident Evil 5 and 6 Switch ports before they launch later this month.
Resident Evil 5 and 6 launch on October 29 for the Switch.