Brace yourself, Resident Evil fans: Capcom announces a 12-minute Resident Evil Showcase, and there are four big potential surprises I'm hoping for

Capcom ended 2025 with a bombshell reveal at The Game Awards, finally unveiling fan favorite Leon S. Kennedy as the second protagonist in Resident Evil Requiem. Fortunately, the pre-launch fun hasn't stopped there.

In a new teaser trailer, Capcom has announced the long-awaited Resident Evil Showcase, scheduled for January 15 at 2:00 PM PST, with a runtime of 12 minutes. The showcase will largely focus on Resident Evil Requiem, with the title set for launch on February 27, 2026.

The teaser gives us a little glimpse of Leon's third-person and Grace's first-person gameplay segments, with both further highlighting the similarities to both Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 2 remakes.

It's safe to say that 4's knife parry mechanic will be making a return, but the knife will be replaced by Leon's new axe to block incoming chainsaw attacks. We can expect to see a significant amount of gameplay for both protagonists, but I think there are more mic drop moments that Capcom has in store for us.

1. Grace and Leon gameplay demo

It's been a long while since Requiem was initially revealed at Summer Game Fest 2025, and Grace's gameplay demo was made available a few months after, but that was exclusive to Gamescom 2025 attendees (and following events like Tokyo Game Show).

While we've already seen the entire demo via content creators' playthroughs (I promise I haven't been watching it non-stop), it's very reasonable to suspect that Capcom will at the very least release this for all players.

However, I have a strong feeling that Thursday's showcase could very well end with a Grace and Leon demo, significantly accelerating hype levels up until launch in February.

Either Capcom has limited this showcase to 12 minutes, as it intends to keep Requiem's big reveals and plot details as close to its chest as possible, or demos are intended to do a lot of the talking, and I'm hoping it's the latter.

2. New legacy character reveal

Capcom has been very secretive throughout Resident Evil Requiem's entire marketing cycle.

The reveal trailer at Summer Game Fest came after Capcom led fans to believe that it would lift the veil on the ninth instalment at a later date, only to then show it at the very end of the event.

The same applies to Leon S. Kennedy's presence, as the game's director, Koshi Nakanishi, specifically said Leon was a bad match for horror – but it's quite clear that this was a smart way of leading some fans to rule him out of an appearance.

With Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 6's Sherry Birkin already suspected to be in the third trailer, it wouldn't be far-fetched to suggest that Capcom might give us a big reveal – and not just Sherry, but possibly the beloved Claire Redfield as well.

Perhaps that's too many stars featuring in one Resident Evil title, but after all, I highly doubt that Leon will be the only one returning to Raccoon City.

3. PS4 port announcement

I can't be the only one who has thought that if Requiem is capable of running on the Nintendo Switch 2, then surely it can run on a PlayStation 4?

Capcom has managed to port the upcoming title to the Switch 2, which isn't a weak gaming system by any means, but certainly doesn't match up to current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X | S consoles in terms of hardware.

The critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4 remake launched on PS4, and there's no denying that there is still a player base on the old-gen console, so I doubt Capcom will choose to miss out on revenue in that case.

4. Surprise remake tease

It's hard to imagine that Capcom will want to overshadow Requiem with a new game announcement at a showcase centered around the ninth title, but that doesn't rule out a tease or snippet of what is in store for the franchise after February.

A Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake has been heavily rumored for a long while at this stage, and the Resident Evil Showcase website uses specific wording, stating that 'some of the games included in the show aren't suitable for children', which may suggest that more than one title will be present during the showcase.

Yes, those games other than Requiem may very well just be promotions for current Resident Evil titles on sale, but with the way Capcom has led with its marketing over the last few months, I refuse to rule out any major surprises at this point.

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1. Best overall:
Alien: Isolation
2. Great for multiplayer:
Dead By Daylight
3. Best remake:
Dead Space
4. Best story:
Alan Wake 2
5. Best Resident Evil:
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard