The Resident Evil 2 remake is happening

The Resident Evil 2 remake is happening

Capcom is moving ahead with a remake of 1998's Resident Evil 2, the company announced in a video posted to the series' official YouTube channel today.

"Thank you for your great support on this Resident Evil 2 Remake Project," said Yoshiaki "H" Hirabayashi, who will be the producer on the remake at Capcom R&D Division 1. "Thanks to your incredible passion and support, the project has finally been approved for development!"

The Resident Evil 2 remake appeared to be finding support within Capcom late last month, shortly after the company asked fans for their thoughts about the idea. Hirabayashi said July 31 that he had presented the "basic concept" to his boss.

Capcom will take fan feedback into account in developing the remake, and will endeavor to provide updates about the project directly to fans, said Hirabayashi, sporting a "WE DO IT!" T-shirt. The company did not specify platforms or a release window for theResident Evil 2 remaster.

Hirabayashi added that there won't be any news regarding Resident Evil 2's remake for a while, but in the meantime, fans of the franchise can look forward to Capcom's remake of 2002's Resident Evil 0, which is set for release next year.

The remake strategy appears to be working for Capcom. The company released a modern update to the original Resident Evil in January, and had sold more than 1 million copies of it worldwide as of late April.

Now we can update our Resident Evil 2 timeline:

• Jan. 14, 2003: GameCube owners, heretofore treated to the very first Resident Evil remake and the entirely new Resident Evil 0, express disappointment in the straight PS1 port of Resident Evil 2.
• 2003 to 2015: The collective world expresses disappointment in the absence of a remastered version of Resident Evil 2.
• July 31, 2015: Less than two days after asking fans if they were (still) interested in a remake of the survival horror classic, a conveniently pre-existing ideas document makes it into the hands of a "boss" at Capcom.
• Aug. 12, 2015: Less than two weeks after saying it was considering a Resident Evil 2 remake, Capcom confirms it's going ahead with the project.

Correction: This article originally referred to a "straight PS2 port of Resident Evil 2" in the timeline. The GameCube version of Resident Evil 2 was a port of the PlayStation original. We've edited the story to reflect this.