Resident Evil 9 is one of gaming’s best-kept secrets, with Capcom remaining incredibly tight-lipped when it comes to the next entry in its best-selling franchise.
Over the past few years, rumors have circulated which suggest that iconic characters including Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine could be returning to finish their story arcs and finally retire from the series.
With no official announcement by Capcom, speculation and rumors are all we have to go on, but this latest leak could reveal why it has taken the publisher so long to reveal Resident Evil 9.
Prominent Resident Evil and horror leaker Dusk Golem has revealed new information regarding the upcoming Resident Evil 9, which many believe will be revealed later this year. In a series of posts on X, Dusk Golem claimed that Resident Evil 9 will be a “reinvention of the series” on a similar level to how Resident Evil 4 and 7 redefined the series.
“The thing I think people will realize when RE9 is revealed is the reason this game is taking so long is because it’s like a big reinvention of the series, to the same level as RE4 & RE7,” Dusk Golem claimed.
Resident Evil 4 took the gameplay in a new direction, going from clunky tank controls to more fluid over-the-shoulder third-person, along with helping to shape trends that would define gaming for multiple generations such as Quick Time Events. Over a decade later, the series was shaken up once again with 2017’s Resident Evil 7, which took the series to the first-person, building on the popularity of first-person horror titles at the time including Outlast and Amnesia.
Dusk Golem went on to reveal that “It’s not going to play just like RE7/RE8 or the Remakes, it’s trying new things & very ambitious,” while reassuring fans that “It will almost definitely be revealed this year.”
It has now been four years since the release of the last main entry in the series, with 2021’s Resident Evil Village concluding Ethan Winters’ story after just two games, leaving many fans wondering where the series would be heading next.
Many assumed that the Winters story would last for the entire trilogy, with Rose being the focus on Resident Evil 9. However, this theory was squashed in 2022 with the release of the Shadow Of Rose DLC which showed a teenage Rose revisiting locations seen in the main story such as Castle Dimitrescu.
It has been rumored that Resident Evil 9 could see the series go open-world, with it being said that this is the reason that the game has taken so long to develop. Dusk Golem has previously claimed that Resident Evil 9 was supposed to be Resident Evil 8, with Village concluding the trilogy, but this was swapped to allow Capcom more time to develop the open world. This has neither been confirmed nor denied by Capcom.
In fact, there has been little information regarding what to expect from Resident Evil 9, except that it is in development, as was confirmed by Resident Evil 7 director Koshi Nakanishi in July 2024.
Despite a four-year gap between games, assuming Resident Evil 9 is released this year, fans of the series haven’t been left high and dry. Resident Evil 4 Remake was released in 2023, bringing the most popular entry in the series to the modern era, followed by the Separate Ways DLC later that year.
