No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke: April 1, 2026, Capcom landed without warning on Steam the original PC versions of resident Evil, Resident Evil 2 And Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. A shadow drop that fans no longer expected.
At the same time, the saga celebrates its 30th anniversary and Resident Evil Requiem explodes the counters with more than 314,000 simultaneous players on Steam and 5 million sales in five days. Capcom is taking advantage of this peak of attention to re-release its cult games… but in a raw version.
Original Resident Evil trilogy on Steam: why this return now?
Until now, the original trilogy was only officially playable on modern PC via GOG.comwhich came out resident Evil in June 2024 then RE2 and RE3 immediately. On Steam, we had to settle for modern remakes, despite repeated requests from PC players.
Behind this return, we find GOG’s preservation program: cleaned vintage PC ports, designed for current machines. According to a manager cited by Video Games Chronicle, Capcom initially doubted the interest of these same versions, before agreeing that they would be released on Steam.
Resident Evil on Steam: which games and what technical improvements?
On Steam therefore arrive the original versions of resident Evil (1996), Resident Evil 2 (1998) and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999): fixed cameras, “tank” controls, pre-rendered settings and a very 90s survival horror rhythm, much rougher than recent remakes.
Optimized ports provide native compatibility with Windows 10 and Windows 11, a modernized DirectX renderer, full screen or windowed options, V‑Sync, gamma adjustment, scaling and anti-aliasing. Old cutscene, video player and game exit bugs have been fixed.
In terms of comfort, we benefit from extensive support for modern controllers (Xbox, DualShock 4, DualSense, Switch and Logitech controllers). Resident Evil 2 And Resident Evil 3 include six languages, including French, as well as directly unlocked “The 4th Survivor”, “The Tofu Survivor” and “Mercenaries” modes.
Resident Evil on Steam: price, promotion and which platform to choose?
Each game is priced at $9.99 (around €9.99), but benefits from a 50% introductory discount until April 15, 2026: resident Evil, RE2 And RE3: Nemesis thus increase to $4.99, or almost €4.99 each, around €15 per trilogy. The JRPG Breath of Fire IV benefit from the same offer.
Be careful, however: on Steam, these versions carry proprietary DRM Capcom which is added to that of Valve, which makes part of the PC community cringe. On GOG.com, the same games remain completely DRM-free, freely downloadable and archiveable.
Concretely, if you live in the Steam ecosystem, with success, captures and possible Steam Deck, these versions will do the job perfectly. Purists attached to conservation and complete offline will undoubtedly continue to prefer GOG, sometimes at the same price during sales.