Capcom announced today that they will be rereleasing Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6 on PS4 and XBox One over the course of 2016. They’ll be starting with Resident Evil 6, which will include all add-on content released for it, some time in March. This will be followed by RE:5 in the summer, and RE:4 in the fall. All three be priced at $20, but with no word on if there will be any changes or graphical improvements to go along with these rereleases. There will also apparently be physical copies available for purchase in America, but no specifics were given on this.
Last year, Capcom saw huge success when they put out an HD remake of the original Resident Evil on last and current gen consoles. This led to them announcing an HD remake of Resident Evil 2 later that year. With 2016 being Resident Evil’s 20th anniversary, it seems Capcom is hoping to repeat the success they saw from resurrecting the original game by bringing back some more recent entries as well.
Capcom’s choice to lead this campaign with Resident Evil 6, the critical failure and “black sheep” of the mainline games, is a bit odd to me. My best guess is that they want to get it out first so that it doesn’t have to compete with the more popular 4 and 5 for sales, leaving those who prefer the more “modern” style of Resident Evil games with only one option on current consoles until later in the year. Of course, Wii U owners can go download the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 from the eShop right now if they want, allowing them to play what VGCC’s own Editor in Chief considers to be the definitive version of the game.
It’s uncertain if the crowd that ate up Resident Evil HD and Resident Evil 0 HD last year will be as enthusiastic to buy the modern games that some fans would argue have “ruined” the franchise. However, with Resident Evil 2 HD having no announced release date, it might be their only option for Resident Evil content for the foreseeable future.
