Capcom Didn’t Want the Re-Release of Classic Resident Evil Games, Believing Remakes Were the “Superior Experience”
Started in 1996 by Capcom, the Resident Evil series remains one of the company’s most popular franchises, featuring several sequels and remakes that reimagine the originals with updated graphics and gameplay.
However, when it came to preserving the classic versions, Capcom was initially hesitant, almost preventing their re-release on GOG.
Capcom Initially Refused to Re-Release Classic Resident Evil Games
In an interview with The Game Business, Marcin Paczynski, GOG’s senior business development manager, explained that it was a challenge to re-release the original trilogy.
According to him, the developer believed that no one would want to play the old games, especially when there are “superior” remakes easily available.
“Capcom were like, ‘we have all of those remakes. It’s already the superior experience to those games.’ They didn’t really see the value in bringing back the vanilla versions,” Paczynski said. As a result, GOG had to work hard to convince Capcom to approve the re-release of Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3, allowing both old and new players to access them more easily.
“It took a lot of convincing that there is an audience that has a lot of memories about those games, and would love to experience exactly the same game again,” continued the GOG director. “Thankfully, we were able to convince them.”
All three were released as part of GOG’s Preservation Program, which ensures future compatibility with new hardware and operating systems. The platform also provides bug fixes and support for modern game controllers.
For instance, the GOG version of Resident Evil includes multiple localizations, DirectX improvements, and features like V-Sync, Gamma correction, anti-aliasing, and much more. This preserves the original experience while offering some visual and gameplay improvements.
Ultimately, the overwhelmingly positive reception and strong sales of the Resident Evil originals on GOG proved that the platform’s vision was correct and that there is a clear market for well-preserved, classic versions of iconic games.
In other news, Capcom has confirmed that its upcoming game, Resident Evil Requiem, aims to play with players’ emotions, teasing a new system the devs can’t reveal yet.
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