While Resident Evil 7 will be released across multiple platforms, Sony and Capcom have apparently inked a behind-the-scenes exclusivity deal that prevents Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners from sampling the game’s virtual reality campaign until 2018 at the earliest.
Announced earlier this year, Resident Evil 7 marks a new direction for Capcom’s long-running survival horror franchise. While recent games in the series have downplayed the horror elements as they shifted focus toward traditional third-person shooter gameplay, Resident Evil 7 is a first-person adventure game in which players must use stealth and a limited supply of scavenged items to survive close-quarters encounters with their deadly pursuers.
In another first for the series, Resident Evil 7 will ship with support for Sony’s PlayStation VR headset, and Capcom notes that the experience is fully playable from beginning to end using virtual reality hardware. PlayStation VR starter bundles hit retail on October 13 alongside a broad selection of launch titles, though Resident Evil 7 will miss the launch-day festivities in favor of an early 2017 release.
Until this week, Capcom had not announced whether the Windows PC version of Resident Evil 7 would support virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. While the publisher may be planning to add support for additional VR devices in the future, this week’s confirmation of an exclusivity agreement ensures that cross-platform VR compatibility won’t arrive until at least 2018.
Resident Evil 7 follows up on a string of Resident Evil spinoffs and remakes released throughout 2016. Capcom previously published remastered versions of the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero for consoles and PCs, and the third-person shooter spinoff Umbrella Corps launched for the PS4 and PCs in June. In addition to Resident Evil 7, Capcom is currently producing a remake of the landmark series sequel Resident Evil 2 in response to fan requests.
Resident Evil 7 launches for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PCs on January 24, 2017.
