Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct delivered an announcement plenty of fans had been holding out for: CAPCOM is porting the Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4 remakes to Switch 2, arriving via the Nintendo eShop on October 16. Boxed copies come later, on January 29.
One release date, three remakes. That’s the entire pitch — and it lands well.
Where these games have already been
Of the trio, the Resident Evil 2 remake is the veteran. CAPCOM put it out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One back in January 2019, with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions following in June 2022. On Switch, it showed up only as a cloud version — a diplomatic way of describing an asterisk.
Gone were the original’s fixed camera angles, replaced by third-person gameplay in the vein of what Resident Evil 4 popularized. Anyone whose only experience is the 1998 release will find that single change reshapes the entire feel of the game.
April 2020 brought the Resident Evil 3 remake to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC through Steam. Bundled in was Resident Evil: Resistance, the online title known throughout development as “Project Resistance.”
The one that sold 5 million copies
March 2023 saw the Resident Evil 4 remake reach PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, where it has since sold north of 5 million copies globally. CAPCOM rebuilt the game around what it describes as a “reimagined storyline,” paired with a fresh graphical art style powered by the studio’s proprietary RE engine.
Consoles weren’t the end of the line. That December, the game expanded to Mac, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and any iPad running an M1 chip or newer.
Which makes the Switch 2 edition anything but a gamble. Call it the fourth or fifth stop on a years-long tour — except this time the hardware can finally handle it natively.
Why the January date matters
The detail worth underlining is that three-month split between digital and physical. Collectors who want a case on the shelf will be waiting until January 29. Anyone content to take Leon’s trip to Spain on a handheld can start in October through the eShop.
Two dates to note: October 16, then January 29. Raccoon City doesn’t wait.