Perhaps in an effort to show that mobile gaming is so much more than Homescape and cash grabs from notable franchises, Capcom released recent Resident Evil games for iPhone and iPad. We’re now living in a world in which it’s possible to play RE7, RE Village, and the remake of RE4 while waiting in line for a croissant.
However, thanks to a recent update, it looks as though you now need an internet connection to boot up the aforementioned games, even though they’re all single-player. The report comes from VG247, which links to a Reddit thread where many are evidently displeased with the new changes. The thread opens with user Hall_Such insisting people not initiate the updates.
Indeed, if you look on the Apple Store pages for all three Resident Evil titles, you can see under the “What’s New” section that “due to changes to the startup process, an internet connection is now required when starting this app.” The patch started rolling out on August 27.
Who’s the real Evil here?
Far be it from me to explain Capcom’s reasoning behind this. Most would argue that a single-player game should not need an internet connection to boot up. Speculations suggest it could be for data collection or DRM checks, but it’s difficult to confirm whether this is true or not.
Some might not see it as much of a problem, given that the majority of us have easy access to an internet connection of some kind. However, we’re talking about mobile ports here; it’s understandable that many would take umbrage over needing to be connected when you can never be sure how stable the internet will be while out and about (subways are a classic example).
The iOS versions of the modern Resident Evil games have not exactly sold well to begin with, and it stands to reason that forcing an internet connection as of now can only do more harm than good.
Published: Sep 3, 2024 08:39 am