Well, here’s a bit of surprise: The new Resident Evil 4 remake—out next year—is in development for PS4. We knew it was coming to next-gen machines, but now it’s also headed to Sony’s older home console. However, it seems this remake will be skipping the Xbox One, possibly due to a lack of power or sales.
In June of this year—during a Sony State of Play—the Resident Evil 4 remake was revealed, confirming after years of rumors and speculation that it is indeed a real thing that will soon exist. The game isn’t a remastering of the classic horror title, but rather a complete remake in the vein of 2019’s Resident Evil 2 and 2020’s Resident Evil 3. Like those games, it’s being built from the ground up in Capcom’s RE Engine, the same engine that also powers recent games like Resident Evil Village and RE 7. At the time of its reveal, it appeared this new remake would be a next-gen-only thing. Well, that’s not the case anymore!
Announced today during Capcom’s TGS 2022 online showcase, Resident Evil 4’s remake is now coming to PS4, too. No trailer or footage of this version was shown, but it does confirm that this next entry in the series is now a cross-gen game. However, Xbox One owners hoping to play RE4 Remake are out of luck. Nowhere in the showcase today did Capcom mention an Xbox One port of the remake. In fact, when Capcom showed off the game’s title art, it only showed logos for the PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Kotaku has contacted Capcom about the lack of an Xbox One port, but hasn’t heard back.
While we don’t officially know the reasoning behind Capcom’s RE4 remake skipping the last-gen Xbox, the likely reasons are A) The base Xbox One is too underpowered for what Capcom devs are doing with this remake and B) the Xbox One never sold as well as the PS4. So even if the devs got the game running well on that console, it might not be worth it in the end. And while the Xbox One X is certainly a powerful console, Microsoft has never allowed devs to only develop games for that machine. An Xbox One game must work across all variants, including the ol’ VCR-looking original, the S, and the X.
So for now, if you want to play this new Resident Evil 4 remake, which is out on March 24, 2023, you’ll need a next-gen machine, a decently powerful PC, or an old PS4 or PS4 Pro.