Resident Evil Village could have skipped last-gen platforms entirely, with the developers waiting to make sure it ran well enough before committing to making a PS4 and Xbox one version.
Resident Evil Village is gorgeous on next-gen platforms and PC, but recent demos and IGN’s own hands-on time have indicated that the game also looks great and runs smoothly on last-gen platforms, the PS4 and Xbox One. However, according to producer Tsuyoshi Kanda, Capcom did not decide to release the game on last-gen platforms until after Village was announced in June last year.
“We developed Village as a game for next-gen hardware, but in order to make it accessible to more players, we went through a lot of trial and error to somehow provide a comparable experience on last-gen hardware,” Kanda told IGN. “In the end, we were able to deliver a high-quality product for last-gen hardware as well. That being said, if the quality hadn’t been sufficient, I don’t think we would have released it.”
“If there was a big difference in graphical quality or framerate, it would not have been something we could deliver to players, so we did our best to make sure it would be satisfying on any platform,” added director Morimasa Sato.
Fans were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the PS4 Pro footage IGN exclusively revealed earlier this month, which was captured by us from a preview build of the full game. With the recent demos, players have been able to directly test a cut-down version of the game on their platform of preference.
If you’re not sure whether to get Village on last-gen or next-gen consoles, don’t worry, as Kanda emphasizes that the last-gen versions can be upgraded to next-gen free of charge, if you buy a next-gen machine later.
Resident Evil Village will be released on May 7. Learn how the game was inspired by both Resi 7 and Resi 4 in our interview with the developers, and be sure to check out our in-depth preview of the first five hours as well as our impressions of extra mode The Mercenaries. If you can’t wait to get your blood drained by Lady Dimitrescu, don’t miss our feature on the towering villain and her daughters, and also be sure to check out our reveal of the game’s other main villains.
Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan.
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