Announced back at E3 2016, Resident Evil 7 biohazard will launch on January 24, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Speaking with MCV UK recently, Capcom EMEA Marketing Director Antoine Molant talked about how past January launches have done well for them, and the reason they aren’t releasing RE7 this holiday is because it won’t be done:

Historically, we have released quite a lot of games in January and it has gone well. To be honest, there’s a development reason – it’s not going to be ready before Christmas, and we don’t want a game that’s unfinished. Just look at April and May this year, even spring is getting congested. Q1 is going to be mental next year – you saw that from the announcements at E3.

Resident Evil 7 is fully playable in virtual reality with PlayStation VR, and as Capcom Europe boss Katsuhiko Ichii admits, “Honestly, I find it a bit too scary.”

As Molant added, Capcom is taking steps to make sure you aren’t in any physical danger when playing in VR mode. “When creating the game, the entire development team approached it as a normal non-VR game, and put in plenty of frightening jump moments,” he said. “Having said that, obviously from a testing standpoint, we are making sure we are not putting people in danger for real.”

Admitting that Capcom knows Resident Evil 6 “was a bit of a let down for core fans,” Molant added that it’s “definitely a good move to go back into survival horror.” We’ll learn more about Resident Evil 7 in the coming weeks, and how it connects to the series, “but ultimately Resident Evil is survival horror, and 7 is a survival horror game,” he said.

Molant continued:

I won’t give much away, but 7 is very much a survival game. There are lots of different types of Resident Evil titles, and there will continue to be the case. But the main series will be survival horror.

Molant also touched on Dead Rising 4, which is coming to Xbox One (and PC) on December 6 as a timed console exclusive for one year. Capcom hasn’t said if Dead Rising 4 will definitely make its way to PS4, but Molant gave out a very revealing tease:

We have this great partnership with Microsoft, but in the future the game will appear on different platforms.

Resident Evil 7 isn’t the only Resident Evil game on the way, with a remake of Resident Evil 2 confirmed last year. According to Molant, fans “yelled for long enough and loud enough” to make it a reality, and that same passion could lead Capcom to bring back other games they’re looking at. “But I am not about to give you any names,” he added. “It’s too early for that.”

[Source: MCV UK]