Resident Evil team focusing attention on virtual reality games

Capcom published its annual "Integrated Report" today, in which the company details its financial achievements over the past year as well as new growth strategies and future plans. An included message from Jun Takeuchi of its Divison 1 team, which handles the development of marquee titles like Resident Evil, names virtual reality as a new, major focus.

"We are focusing our energy on challenging the virtual reality (VR) game market," Takeuchi writes. Division 1 is currently "building a new game development engine able to support VR." The summary goes on to claim that VR is "the hottest market right now."

A demo of one of these Capcom-developed experiences, called "Kitchen," debuted at E3 2015 in June. It was one of many demonstrations shown off on Sony's games-and-more PlayStation VR apparatus during the conference.

The report doesn't go into detail about projects in the pipeline, but Takeuchi does suggest that a horror game would be a good fit for the technology. "An unmatched horror experience making use of the immersive experience only possible with a VR headset" is one possible title, he writes.

Fortunately for those who bristle at the mention of virtual reality, the Resident Evil developer won't shift gears entirely. Takeuchi confirms that production of VR titles will occur "while simultaneously developing titles for current game consoles."

Capcom's first developmental division is currently working on a remake of Resident Evil 2.