Capcom has confirmed it experimented with plans to make Resident Evil: Requiem an open-world game, and for it feature online elements, before it ultimately changed course.

In a revealing developer diary video, Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi introduced a brief look at this now-cancelled, earlier version of the game, where multiple protagonists can be seen in action-heavy gunplay.

Ultimately, however, Capcom ditched these ideas to focus back on the Resident Evil franchise’s horror roots, its developers said. When it arrives next year, Requiem will be a single-player game, and offline only.

“We’ve managed to pack a lot into this game. We were even exploring many different systems early in development,” producer Masachika Kawata noted.

“You might have heard some of the rumors,” Nakanishi continued. “Things like an online Resident Evil, or an open-world Resident Evil, which we spent some time experimenting with.

“But in the end, although we had some interesting concepts, we realized that it wasn’t what fans wanted to see or play. So we went back to the drawing board, and created what led to Resident Evil: Requiem.”

You can see a few brief shots of the cancelled online version of Requiem below:

The cancelled Resident Evil 9 project pic.twitter.com/Vu7z2tlppQ

— Waleed (@Waleedx2007) June 27, 2025

Discussing Requiem’s setting, art director Tomonori Takano noted that Capcom had made the deliberate choice to place the game’s action in urban environments, in order to differentiate it from other recent games.

Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil Village and the recent Resident Evil 4 Remake are all set outside major population centers, whereas Requiem will see the return of Raccoon City.

“Previous titles were often set in rural areas with lots of nature,” Takano noted. “This time it is more focused on the urban environment. And there are many scenarios that are set as a modern drama, including Raccoon City.”

While we now know the setting and single-player focus of Requiem for certain, Capcom remains more coy over whether floppy-haired fan-favorite Leon S. Kennedy is also playable in the game, alongside its currently-announced protagonist, FBI agent Grace Ashcroft.

Yesterday’s Capcom Spotlight 2025 broadcast included comments from Nakanishi that stated Leon would be a “bad match for horror” — though the director stopped short of confirming the character would not be present at all. Fans suspect Capcom is still to showcase Requiem’s more action-heavy moments — for which Leon would be better suited.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social