Strap yourselves in on the eve of Requiem's day one Switch 2 launch.
I’m still in awe that here we are in 2026, and a new Resident Evil game is launching on a Nintendo system on day one. It’s like the culmination of a will-they-won’t-they drama that’s been going between Capcom and Nintendo for three decades. Please allow me to catch you up with a brief history.
RE and Nintendo have a long, interesting and rather complex history going back to 1996. The birth of Capcom’s cinematic survival horror IP was possible because of three factors: first, the launch of the PlayStation, the first mainstream 3D game console; second, PlayStation’s use of high-capacity CDs for game data; and third, PlayStation’s large userbase of older gamers, to whom RE’s scenes of explicit violence and gore appealed.
While the Nintendo 64 was capable of 3D like the PlayStation, its low-capacity cartridges prevented the system from getting any RE game for nearly four years. And there was the question of demographics; Nintendo games sell best on Nintendo consoles, and those tend to appeal to younger and broader audiences.
Meanwhile, Capcom tried to bring the series to Nintendo’s popular Game Boy Color, first with a cancelled version of the first Resident Evil and with the 2D Resident Evil Gaiden, but the portable was too underpowered to credibly portray RE’s brand of gore, tension, and jump scares. The GameCube allowed Nintendo to close the gap on the technical front. This era saw Capcom’s infamous decision to make the mainline RE series exclusive to GameCube, although the demographic problem remained and those titles performed below expectations.
Capcom then brought the mainline series back to PlayStation and began releasing them on Xbox simultaneously, starting with Resident Evil 5 in 2009. Although the Wii and Nintendo 3DS received decent-to-great non-mainline RE games (Resident Evil Revelations was the best RE of 2012 and proved handhelds had come a long way technologically) and Nintendo Switch got belated ports of entries that never came out on Wii or Wii U, Nintendo has largely been left out of the debut of numbered RE games since 2005, over two decades ago.
That all changes with Resident Evil Requiem, ostensibly the ninth numbered entry in the three-decade franchise. Although initially announced only for PS5, Xbox Series S & X, and PC, the penultimate reveal in the September 2025 Nintendo Direct was none other than a trailer announcing that Requiem would launch on Nintendo Switch 2 day and date with the other versions.
Later, Capcom and Nintendo unveiled a collaboration in the form of Leon and Grace Amiibo figures, as well as a Switch 2 Pro Controller with RE branding, the first in the Switch 2’s history. Capcom and Nintendo are clearly invested in the success of the franchise on the Switch 2.
If you’re looking for my thoughts on Requiem, and specifically on Requiem as played on Switch 2, you won’t get them today… but watch this space.
Resident Evil Requiem heads to Switch 2 alongside Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 from 27 February 2026.
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Resident Evil Requiem27 February 2026PC PS5 Switch 2 Xbox Series S & X
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