Resident Evil 7: Biohazard acted as somewhat of a soft reboot for the iconic franchise, according to a lot of fans. The survival-horror game returned Resident Evil to its terrifying roots, showing the journey of Ethan Winters as he tries to find his missing wife and fend off the Baker family as they have become infected with a strange virus. Ditching the more action-oriented gameplay of Resident Evil 5 and 6, many praised the steady unfolding of the mystery in Resident Evil 7.
However, despite the game receiving positive reviews from fans and critics, according to Resident Evil 7's Executive Producer Jun Takeuchi, the survival-horror title could've initially looked very different. According to Takeuchi, who recently spoke in an interview on the Biohazard YouTube channel, Capcom was originally pushing for Resident Evil 7 to be more of a live-service title, with microtransactions added in. Takeuchi stated that the developers were being told to make "the games players are asking for."
To Capcom, this meant that Resident Evil 7 would have online multiplayer, downloadable content, and other features that the team was struggling to add. Takeuchi stated that this resulted in a meeting with Capcom's Chairman Kenzo Tsujimoto. Tsujimoto allegedly said that Resident Evil 7 was in "bad shape," leading to Takeuchi being brought on to help the project. This led to the removal of things like online multiplayer, and may have been the best thing for Resident Evil 7 to make it what the franchise needed at the time.
Online multiplayer was considered for a time for Resident Evil 7, but according to Takeuchi, this idea was scrapped following the team not seeing a clear path to maintaining the horror experience while playing with friends. Some other concepts that Capcom was allegedly pushing for, such as DLC, did make their way to the recent Resident Evil titles, with Resident Evil: Village recently revealing its upcoming DLC. Still, this downloadable content doesn't border on what one would expect from a live-service title, and serves to expand the single player experience of the Resident Evil games.
Many fans will be glad to hear that the Resident Evil 7 team ended up with what Takeuchi terms "marketing's worst nightmare" in a single player, survival-horror title. The game has proven to be immensely popular with old and new players, even receiving a next-gen upgrade alongside Resident Evil 2 and 3. It seems that what Capcom may have initially feared as a poor marketing move turned out to be a successful soft reboot for one of gaming's most recognized horror franchises.
Resident Evil 7 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.