The popular survival horror franchise, Resident Evil, returned in a big way this year with its eighth mainline game, Resident Evil Village. Upon release, Resident Evil Village received praise for retaining the look and feel of Resident Evil 7, while carrying the DNA of the highly successful Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil Village's impressive sales numbers and positive reviews are a firm indication that fans enjoyed this brand new entry into the Resident Evil franchise.
Capcom has indeed acknowledged Resident Evil Village's success and announced that it's working on a DLC after "popular demand." Early rumors suggested that Capcom had no plans on making a DLC for Resident Evil Village though this seems to have changed post-launch. While a Resident Evil Village DLC sounds exciting, it's still a big mystery as to when fans can actually get their hands on it.
Predicting Resident Evil Village DLC Release Date
There are plenty of directions in which Capcom can take this upcoming Resident Evil Village DLC, and when it launches may very well depend on its scope and size. There is a slight possibility that Capcom takes the Resident Evil 7 approach with Village's DLC, which should provide some much-needed insight.
Resident Evil 7 received a total of four DLC packs, two of which were released just a week after the base game launched. The story DLC — "End of Zoe" and "Not a Hero" — was initially planned to release in the second quarter of 2017 but ended up getting delayed till December of 2017. The time gap between the release of Resident Evil 7 and its big story DLCs was 11 months, and this could also be the case with Resident Evil Village, if not more.
However, it seems Resident Evil Village DLC went into production right around the time Capcom made the announcement at E3 2021, which means that it might not be releasing any time soon. If the DLC introduces new locations, characters, and story beats that are not part of the Resident Evil Village cut content, then there's even less chance of this DLC launching anytime before the game's first anniversary.
By the looks of it, Capcom might be planning to make Resident Evil an annual franchise, which means by the time Resident Evil Village turns one, a brand new Resident Evil game might have been announced or even released. Multiple reports suggest that a Nintendo Switch timed-exclusive Resident Evil title, called Resident Evil Outrage, will release this holiday season. However, with no announcement yet, it could have been delayed.
There have also been reports that Capcom is outsourcing the development of Resident Evil Outrage, and Tose — which developed the 3DS version of Resident Evil Revelations — is reportedly helming this project. If this is true, then the development of Village's DLC should remain unaffected, otherwise, fans should be ready to wait for a much longer time than they initially expected.
There is quite the possibility that the upcoming Resident Evil Village DLC borrows from the cut content from the main game. It could be anything from Elena's village section, to Ada Wong's role that links to the overarching narrative that sprouted in Resident Evil 7. A DLC made out of the cut content makes more sense, which would also take less time to develop, given that it would potentially be using more of existing assets. If that turns out to be the case, then fans should expect Resident Evil Village DLC to drop sooner than later.
Capcom could also want to push out the DLC as soon as possible and move on to its next big project. In such a case, a December 2021 release date for the DLC makes more sense, especially since Capcom's holiday 2021 lineup is practically empty. By releasing Resident Evil Village's DLC during this period, Capcom could partially fill the void created by a potentially delayed Resident Evil Outrage.
Resident Evil Village is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
