Resident Evil 9 Confirms Shock Return to Raccoon City and Surprise Main Character

Summary

Resident Evil Requiem will release on Feb 27, 2026, starring Grace Ashcroft.
The game will feature the ruined remains of Raccoon City.
More details are expected to come at Gamescom in August.

Capcom has officially announced that Resident Evil Requiem, aka Resident Evil 9, will launch on February 27, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. Resident Evil Requiem has been rumored for quite some time, and with the Resident Evil franchise proving to be a reliable money-maker for Capcom, it’s always been an inevitability.

The Resident Evil franchise has been on a bit of a break recently. A new Resident Evil project was released every year from 2019 to 2023, but 2024 came and went with nothing new and 2025 is going down the same path. However, rumors have persisted that Capcom has big near-future plans for the Resident Evil series. That plan was always said to start with Resident Evil 9, expected to kick off a three-year streak of annual Resident Evil releases. Now Capcom has finally pulled the curtain back on Resident Evil 9, confirming its release date, one of its main characters, and more.

Resident Evil 9 Leak Reveals Scrapped Open World Multiplayer Concept

A reputable Resident Evil insider reveals scrapped plans for the upcoming Resident Evil 9 while also confirming the game’s main character.

The Resident Evil 9 trailer begins with FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil: Outbreak, being tasked with investigating a crime scene at the hotel where her mother was murdered. It seems people are dying of a mysterious illness, in typical Resident Evil fashion, and there are creepy monsters out and about. The game will shockingly take players to the ruined remains of Raccoon City, with the iconic Raccoon City Police Department seen in one brief instance. For the most part, the Resident Evil 9 trailer keeps its cards close to its chest, and so there’s still a lot we don’t know about the game. With a February 27 release date, a lot more information should come to light in the months ahead.

Resident Evil 9 Trailer

What we do know is that Resident Evil 9 will be at Gamescom in playable form. Gamescom Opening Night Live is scheduled to take place on August 19, so chances are that we will get a more in-depth look at the game then. By that point, fans should have a much better idea of how exactly Resident Evil 9 plays. It’s been previously rumored that Resident Evil 9 will be an open-world game, but that has not been confirmed. At this point, we don’t even know if it’s a first-person game like Resident Evil 7 and Village, or if it’s a third-person game, though third-person seems more likely.

Even though he was nowhere to be seen in the trailer, Resident Evil insider AestheticGamer has doubled down that Resident Evil 9 will feature Leon S. Kennedy. Many Resident Evil games feature more than one protagonist, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Leon at all. Beyond that, AestheticGamer accurately predicted that Resident Evil 9 would show up this week, making their claims about Leon even easier to believe.