Resident Evil's Most Disappointing Game Is Officially Dead Next Month

Less than three years after its initial release, it's been announced that the disappointing multiplayer spin-off Resident Evil Re:Verse will be shutting down in 2025. Originally launched in October 2022, Re:Verse was included as a free bonus game for owners of Resident Evil Village, but otherwise unavailable to purchase as a standalone game. Despite being intended to launch alongside Village, however, Re:Verse's launch was heavily delayed after its initial beta tests, eventually releasing a year later alongside the game's DLC expansion.

As announced by the official RE_Games account on X, Resident Evil Re:Verse is set to be removed from digital storefronts on March 3, 2025, and will completely cease online services on June 29. This will end support for the game entirely, with no plans for further development or maintenance, and Re:Verse will not be playable in any official capacity after it goes offline on June 29. Consequently, Re:Verse also won't be included for free with purchases of Village after it and its DLCs are removed on March 3.

What Went Wrong With Resident Evil Re:Verse

Gameplay, Balance, & Monetization Issues Doomed Re:Verse From The Start

Despite ostensibly being a celebration of Resident Evil's 25th anniversary, reception to Re:Verse on launch was largely negative, with players criticizing the game for gameplay issues, balance issues, a general lack of content, and being overly monetized, with a premium battle pass system and character skins sold as microtransactions.

It also didn't help that Resident Evil Re:Verse can't be purchased as a standalone game, and is only available as a package deal with Resident Evil Village, which inherently limits the game's playerbase. The game essentially took the form of a six-player hero shooter, with players able to choose between Chris, Claire, Jill, Leon, Ada, or HUNK, with the twist that players who were killed would mutate into Resident Evil monsters.

The game's negative reputation at launch was only compounded by a lack of updates, leading to the game being mostly forgotten even among die-hard Resident Evil fans - according to Steam Charts, from an already-low all-time peak of just over 2,000 players, the game's audience has shrunk down to almost nothing, with players counts in the single digits. News of the game's impending shutdown has presumably boosted the playerbase, but even then, it's only managed to reach a 24-hour peak of 55 players.

This Is The Right Move For RE

PVP Games Don't Fit The Resident Evil Franchise

While shutting down a game instead of trying to update or preserve it is generally a negative, PVP multiplayer has never quite worked for Resident Evil. The series has mostly found its audience through strong single-player games, and where it has found more success with multiplayer is mostly in cooperative experiences, as can be seen in games like RE5 and RE6. Notably, in terms of live-service, the more co-op focused Resident Evil Resistance is still going, and the idea of turning the Mercenaries mode into a standalone game is a popular idea among some fans.

Re:Verse becoming completely unplayable is a negative in terms of preservation, especially for any players who spent extra money on it, but the game itself is unlikely to be missed by many. Unpopular from the very start, Resident Evil Re:Verse is set to be removed from digital storefronts on March 3, and go offline on June 29, and the game's failure will hopefully steer Resident Evil away from trying to focus on multiplayer- or, at the very least, result in a better multiplayer game in the future.

Source: RE_Games/X, Steam Charts