Resident Evil 2, 3, And 7 Are Being Upgraded For PS5 And Xbox Series X

The official "Resident Evil" Twitter account has unveiled plans to bring "Resident Evil 7," along with the previous-gen remakes for "Resident Evil 2" and "Resident Evil 3," to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S. It's a trend we've seen before with several PlayStation 4 titles either offering a single digital purchase that can be played on both PS4 and PS5, or with visually enhanced versions being made for their PS4 counterparts.

"Enhanced" versions of these three "Resident Evil" titles will be available sometime later in 2022, but an expected month (or even quarter) hasn't been mentioned. What has been mentioned is a series of upgrade patches for the PC versions of each game, which will be released alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S versions. And everything — the PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC upgrades — will be free for anyone who already owns the games. So, for example, if you have the "Resident Evil 2" remake on PS4, you'll be able to get the upgraded PS5 version at no extra cost.

As for what you can expect from these "enhanced" versions, well, the announcement didn't go into specifics. You can count on the visuals getting a boost as the tweet directly mentions visual enhancements, but that (plus a few screenshots) is as far as it goes.

If other recent next-gen upgrades are any indication this likely means higher resolution, higher (and smoother) frame rates, improved loading times, and more detail for objects and textures. The games won't have all the same upgrades as, say, "No Man's Sky," since they're completely different types of experiences, but the general improvements that come with the newer hardware (3D audio support, haptic feedback, etc.) don't seem like an unreasonable expectation. And really, in the case of "Resident Evil 7," something like PS5 VR support would make sense as current versions of the game already support VR.

For now though, aside from improved visuals, we can only speculate as to what these next-gen enhanced versions will offer.