Resident Evil 8 was reportedly scrapped for current-gen consoles in favour of graphics overhaul

While various leaks appear to have gotten a lot right about Resident Evil 8 prior to its reveal last week, there was one surprising detail we learned. The game is not cross-gen and will instead only release for PC, Xbox Series X and PS5. Initially, Capcom was working on an Xbox One and PS4 version, but it was apparently scrapped later down the line.

According to Dusk Golem, a Twitter account that has leaked Resident Evil details successfully in the past, gave some insight into why the game won't be coming to current generation consoles in a series of tweets:

(1/3) Okay, I got some clarification on why they made RE8 next-gen only, when it was cross-gen previously. With the updated graphic fidelity overhaul they're doing (still in progress), the way RE8 was designed lead to past-gen consoles having a lot of pop-in/long texture loads/

— AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) June 13, 2020

The reasoning seems to be that limitations of current-gen hardware was becoming a bottleneck graphically, as time that could be spent making the next-gen versions look nicer was being spent trying to sort graphical issues, pop-in and pop-in on Xbox One and PS4.

Load times were another apparent issue, as Resident Evil Village has a lot of load zones and focuses more on exploration. The ageing HDDs of the Xbox One and PS4 may have introduced to many loading screens, breaking up the flow of the game.

At this point, Capcom has not confirmed that Xbox One or PS4 versions of RE 8 were in the works. The game has only been announced for PC, Xbox Series X and PS5 in 2021.

KitGuru Says: The RE Engine has been an excellent graphical showcase for Xbox One and PS4 but it does seem like perhaps it is time to focus more on newer hardware. The Xbox One and PS4 were not cutting edge when they came out in 2013, whereas the Xbox Series X and PS5 are looking much more promising in many areas.

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