Resident Evil 7 Dev: Flaws Were 'Vividly Present' But Ignored

Ever wonder how Resident Evil 7 ended up as the first-person horror revival we know today? According to ex-Capcom producer Miguel Corti, it was a messy journey full of ignored flaws and a complete reboot.

In a thread on Bluesky, Corti reflected on the game's 10th anniversary, saying it's great to see it still generating critical discussion. He admitted that while its flaws stand out compared to the remakes and sequels that followed, "I can say a lot of the flaws were vividly present at the time, and roundly ignored."

So why did those flaws get overlooked? Corti explains that Resident Evil 7's direction was heavily influenced by the reception of Resident Evil 6. Capcom higher-ups were happy with RE6, but the devs wanted the critical acclaim other games were getting—especially since many were influenced by Resident Evil. The Last of Us, for instance, took inspiration from Naughty Dog's title over a few iterations.

Despite RE6's convoluted plot, the original plan for its sequel was even more convoluted nonsense. Corti says, "It was so all over the place, I lost track of the versions." Eventually, a major reorganization at Capcom led to a mandate to redo RE7 from scratch. A new dev team and director were brought on, and one director who was very hands-on gave the team the "bombshell of an idea" to make the game first-person. Corti adds, "A lot of the crazier ideas in RE are just random things that someone on the dev team cottons onto."

Even after all that, Resident Evil 7 initially underperformed—at least compared to the panned duo of Resident Evil 5 and 6. Corti notes, "RE fans were confused by it, and non-fans either didn't want to touch horror or weren't sure what to make of it. Capcom was disappointed." It was actually Village and all the memes it generated that helped RE7 earn an RE4-level reputation.

Corti also shared his thoughts on generative AI in games, saying the prolonged development is "one of the reasons I'm against genAI in games." He explained that if the art director and EP could've had everything they envisioned out the gate, it would have been a terrible game—it was the back and forth that made it what it was.

What do you think about these revelations? Will you be revisiting Resident Evil 7 with new eyes?