The streak kept going with Resident Evil’s most recent title, Resident Evil Village. As Village is the eighth mainline title in the series, it continues the story of Ethan Winters, a nondescript family man who must contend with some of the strangest horrors the Resident Evil universe has seen. While the game’s quality in relation to the other all-time classic RE games is up for debate, it proved to be another successful effort and has sold over six million copies. Resident Evil Village performed so well that Capcom announced it would be getting DLC just a month after its launch. However, its May 7th anniversary has come and gone without news on the DLC, and many are wondering what’s going on.
RELATED: Resident Evil Village DLC ‘Teases’ Have Been Cruel
Why Resident Evil Village’s DLC is Taking So Long
It seems strange that an entire year could pass without Resident Evil Village’s DLC receiving so much as a tease, but there are a few potential reasons why. As fans were told during E3 2021, the DLC did not begin development until after the game was out. This implied that DLC may not have been in the scope for Resident Evil Village, so its development team had to come up with something new. Resident Evil 7 and RE2 Remake’s DLC was seemingly planned from the beginning, and also featured short scenarios with heavy asset reuse. If Resident Evil Village’s new content is intended to be something larger, like a prequel campaign for Chris Redfield, then it makes sense that more work would have to be done.
The ongoing pandemic likely contributed to development delays, but RE Village DLC may have been affected by other sources. Namely, its developers may be preoccupied with the other Resident Evil projects that fans suspect are happening concurrently. Resident Evil 4 Remake feels very likely at this point, but it allegedly had some shifts in development. Rumor has it that Capcom shifted the primary studio from Resident Evil 3 Remake’s external developers over to an internal group, which likely includes some of the Village team. Resident Evil Re:Verse is also still missing in action after an indefinite delay. Re:Verse may have been intended to get continual updates instead of Resident Evil Village, leaving Capcom unprepared to tackle a proper add-on for the latter.
Capcom’s Plans for Resident Evil Village and the Future
All of this leaves the future of Resident Evil Village and the wider franchise as a mystery. Capcom probably didn’t abandon something as successful as Village, so fans should expect to hear more on it eventually. A good suspect for when DLC news could drop is the next State of Play presentation, an event that many are suspecting to happen in the next few months. Hopefully, even if the DLC still needs more time, the nature of the additional content will be explained. Recent reports have suggested that Re:Verse may be getting a proper release date soon, so multiple Resident Evil announcements could drop at once.
If Resident Evil 4 Remake still isn’t ready to be announced, then substantial Resident Evil Village DLC could fill out Capcom’s release schedule. Capcom’s future game releases are conspicuously vague right now, with only Exoprimal and Pragmata coming for sure after Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. It feels like the trade show season will be illuminating as to what Capcom’s plans are. In the meantime, fans must continue to wait for news on Resident Evil Village’s DLC, hoping that it can live up to the wild ride that was Village itself.
Resident Evil Village is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE: Resident Evil 4 Remake is More Exciting Than RE2/RE3 For One Not-So-Obvious Reason
