Capcom is currently sailing in the success of the eighth mainline Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Village is now the fastest-selling Resident Evil game of all time, though the game's real success lies in its ability to surprise long-time fans as well as newcomers. From a technical point of view, Resident Evil Village does plenty of things right, and has avoided some of the pitfalls that other AAA games of late have suffered. All of this bodes well, especially for Capcom's upcoming new IP Pragmata.
Pragmata is the one of the most mysterious upcoming games from Capcom. Its cryptic reveal trailer did little to explain what the game is all about, which led many to compare Pragmata with Kojima Production's Death Stranding. Pragmata is targeting a 2023 release window, so it could be a while before fans get a decent look at the game, although looking at Resident Evil Village and other recent Capcom games reveals a lot about this upcoming new mysterious IP.
A Highly Polished Launch
This past generation has seen a massive increase in unoptimized broken AAA game releases, all of which is followed by a humungous day zero or day one patch. It is mainly because AAA game development has become more complex, with many developers striving to make massive open-world experiences. Live service games have become increasingly popular as well.
On the other hand, Capcom remains focused on making relatively small, if not entirely linear, video games that feature hand-crafted environments and are polished at launch. Resident Evil Village had the most stable AAA launch from a third-party publisher in a while, with a day one patch less than 500 MB in size. That is surprisingly low compared to day one patches for other third-party games, which are sometimes even larger than the game's original size.
Resident Evil Village is an absolutely gorgeous game with hand-crafted environments that look almost life-like. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X version of the game boasts next-gen features such as instant loading time, raytracing, and 60 FPS. It's important to acknowledge that Resident Evil Village targets 45 FPS with raytracing enabled on both the next-gen devices but achieves near-constant 60 FPS on both of them, something that not many other next-gen third-party AAA games are able to achieve.
Resident Evil Village isn't the only Capcom game that launched in such a polished state with such impeccable visuals. 2019's Devil May Cry 5 and its next-gen variants were equally optimized at launch as well. While the information on Pragmata is scarce at the moment, all these details from Capcom's recent titles indicate that Pragmata could have a similarly polished launch that doesn't rely on a massive day one patch to fix it afterward.
Doing What They Do Best
Whereas most third-party game companies caved into makes games that would attract a wider audience, Capcom continues to do what they do best. In the last few years, the company has released hugely successful sequels to its decades-old franchises, and it's finally gearing up to release a new IP. It's important to acknowledge that Capcom could make Pragmata a massive open-world game or a live service game that adheres to modern gaming norms, instead, it seems to be sticking to its guns.
Pragmata's official PlayStation store description calls it a brand new sci-fi "action adventure game from Capcom, the creators of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry." It's necessary to acknowledge Pragmata's connection to Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, as it would be carrying the DNA of these highly successful franchises. Both Resident Evil and Devil May Cry are quirky on their own, and Resident Evil Village proves that Capcom is sticking to its strengths. All of this seems promising for Pragmata, that just like Resident Evil Village, could be bizarre in Capcom's sense of style, featuring hand-crafted labyrinth-like set pieces, breath-taking visuals, and a polished day-one experience that Capcom fans have grown to expect from the company in the last few years.
Resident Evil Village is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.