If you’ve booted up the mobile versions of Resident Evil 4, 7, or Village recently, and found you couldn’t play without an internet connection, you’re not the only one.
It’s pretty common for a lot of mobile titles to require an internet connection, particularly gacha games that’ll be running checks to make sure you’re not cheating, but it’s rare for single-player games to need them. Except as spotted by some fans online, a recent update for Resident Evil 4, 7, and Village on iOS respectively all made it so that you need an internet connection when booting the game up. “Due to changes to the startup process, an internet connection is now required when starting this app,” reads the update note for each game.
This is obviously a thoroughly odd choice, with users on Reddit suggesting that it might be because of data collection or DRM checks, though that is only speculation, and would be an odd thing to do on the latter point given just how many single-player games don’t require you to be connected to the internet. A number of other users on Reddit also expressed the desire to request refunds in light of the change, though considering how many people reportedly bought these games, that probably won’t be that many people anyway.
Back in July, store data estimates from Appmagic (via Mobilegamer.biz) put the iOS version of Resident Evil 7 in particular at around 2000 units sold, notably under rather than over. These aren’t the only mobile ports of big AAA games that have supposedly sold poorly, so it really does seem like there’s not much of a market for that kind of game, particularly considering the fact they cost as much as they do on console. It doesn’t help that if you just play using the touchscreen it’s a pain in the ass, so overall, you’re probably better off sticking to console or PC.
