Resident Evil Requiem producer explains why Capcom scrapped multiplayer horror: "We can't just slap on new skins and characters"

The producer of the next highly-anticipated instalment of Resident Evil, Resident Evil Requiem, has teased that the upcoming horror retains "some" elements of its prior life as an online multiplayer open-world game, but wouldn't tell us what, exactly, they are.
In an interview with Press Start Australia, producer Masato Kumazawa said that Requiem - initially conceived as an open-world, multiplayer game - was reinvented when the team decided fans of the franchise "wouldn't enjoy it" given the horror aspects were "very mild".
Questioned about this, however, Kumazawa would only say "there are some remaining elements, but we can't disclose what it is and how it is," and laughed when pressed harder for more details.
"Looking at the game when it was multiplayer, the horror part was very mild," he said. "However, in that build, we made a game that was fun to play. But we looked deeply into this game and wondered if a fan of the franchise would really like this, so we thought they [...] probably wouldn't enjoy it as much.
"That's the reason we made it back into single-player. But because it was fun, we added elements from that build to the final game to ensure it was fun."
Asked what, in his opinion, Resident Evil fans wanted from a new title, the producer added: "I believe fans of the franchise want [...] survival horror and being scared. That is the number one thing that fans want. So by saying that, we can't just slap on new skins and new characters and give you the same experience. It wouldn't be that good.
"That's why we wanted to make sure we added new elements that ensured this feels like a new survival horror game."
Interestingly, Kumazawa also revealed that Requiem was "in development way before Village", which is why the team is keen to ensure the game "focus[es] on the horror" and avoids becoming too combat-heavy.
Eurogamer sat down with game director Koshi Nakanishi at Gamescom to talk about pacing, where he explained that he would be taking the "same" approach" with Requiem as Resident Evil 7, which Nakanishi also directed.
Capcom also recently said it was looking to the original Resident Evil games for ideas about how to challenge players with boss battles in Requiem.
Resident Evil Requiem is set to release on 27th February, 2026.