Resident Evil Village was meant to launch with a multiplayer mode, Resident Evil Re:Verse. In April this year, after some not great open betas, Capcom announced it would be delayed until July. Itâs July now, but look around you. Nope. Indeed, minutes ago the developers announced it has now slipped to some point in space year 2022.
So whatâs gone wrong? Well, from the wooliness of the tweet, my guess would be: lots.
âResident Evil Re:Verse is being moved to 2022,â the franchiseâs official Twitter announces, âso that the team can continue working to deliver a smooth gameplay experience.â Which, when accompanied by such an ambiguously distant new date, is usually industry code for, âShit, shit, the framerate doesnât go over 3!â
They add, âWe will share updated launch details at a later time. Thank you for your patience and understanding.â
For players who purchased a physical version of Resident Evil Village, we recommend that you keep track of the included Resident Evil Re:Verse download code or add it to your account now so that you are ready to play when the game launches next year.
â Resident Evil (@RE_Games) July 15, 2021
They go on to say in a further tweet that current Village owners should either keep their Re:Verse download code somewhere safe, or add it to their account now, âso that you are ready to play when the game launches next year.â
Delays like this are absolutely normal for games development in the 2020s, and since this has always been a freebie that was supposed to come with this yearâs enormously popular Resident Evil: Village, itâd be a silly sausage who got too up in arms about it. Whatâs strange here, however, is the eleventh hour nature of the delay.
They must have known it wasnât going to be ready for July, given that theyâve just added on at least another six months of development time, so why wait until halfway through the promised month before admitting itâs nowhere near done? One explanation could be that as far as the team working on it felt, it was on track, but then others higher up at Capcom threw their arms in the air/chairs out the window, and demanded it be a whole other thing.
Itâs not clear how many Resievil fans were clawing at the walls for a multiplayer mode of Village, but theyâve now got lots more time to devote to looking forward to it.