Update 3/22 Rumor mill...
The insider Dusk Golem, who is (sorta) reliable when it comes to Resident Evil and Silent Hill, has stated via his that Resident Evil 9 will have open-world elements, although he didn't say much.
(1/2) So here's a little tidbit I'll share, Capcom often will greenlight new initiatives in 3's closer together. Decent examples are RE7, RE:2 & DMCV were all Greenlit fairly close together to take advantage of their new RE Engine, & the idea to remake RE:2 inspired them to also
(2/2) take on RE:3 & RE:4 for a remake initiative. Dragons Dogma 2 expanded RE Engine functionality for open world games, the two other games building on this tech is Monster Hunter Wild & Resident Evil 9.
In short, Capcom usually has a plan to use new ideas in two or three games released close together, and in this example it used the games in the Resident Evil franchise, and added the recently released Dragon's Dogma 2, which is open-world.
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