Resident Evil and Street Fighter developer Capcom revealed some big changes coming to its RE Engine, which they plan to incrementally improve and transform into an “AI-generation game engine.”
On October 2, Capcom held its own tech conference, called ‘Capcom Open Conference RE: 2026.’ One of the most notable takeaways from this event was a presentation given by programmer Satoshi Ishida, titled ‘The Outlook and Future of the REX Project, Further Evolving the RE Engine for the Next Generation.’ The purpose of this presentation was to outline several major changes coming to the RE Engine, which will come in the form of a multi-step improvement project called ‘REX.’
As reported by Japanese news outlet GameBiz, Ishida mentioned three major issues that Capcom is currently experiencing when it comes to game development: First, games are now so massive that simple processes have become extremely time-consuming; increased numbers of staff mean an engine is needed that’s easy for everyone to use; and finally, “successfully integrating AI technology into development workflows has become an essential condition for streamlining future development.”
GameBiz’s report confirmed that REX was created to help solve these problems by improving the efficiency of game development, game performance, tools, quality assurance, etc. Capcom felt that, rather than creating a brand-new engine from scratch, gradually adding these improvements over time is the best way to help evolve the RE Engine to the next generation.
We won’t get into the weeds of all the specific improvements included in the REX program, but Capcom is making at least some of them open-source for the purpose of training AI. Most interestingly, AI plays into Capcom’s larger, long-term goal of turning the RE Engine into an “AI-generation game engine” using its REX improvements.
GameBiz stated that REX unifies the entire RE Engine system under the “world’s most common programming language,” meaning that it’s equal parts easier for humans to use and for AI to understand. Capcom’s goal is to build a future where it “creates games together with AI”; keeping REX in mind, this seems to mean that Capcom is utilizing artificial intelligence to speed up and streamline certain processes to make development easier, not necessarily to generate assets or artworks wholesale.
In the past, Capcom has been publicly averse to using AI to create assets, but confirmed that it will use artificial intelligence as a tool for optimizing how it makes games.
“We will not implement assets generated by AI into our games.” Capcom said in a March 2026 shareholders meeting. “However, we plan to proactively use it as a contributing technology to improve the efficiency and productivity of the game development process. To this end, we are currently exploring ways to implement it in various areas, including graphics, sound and programming.”
This is the latest big news to come from Capcom after Resident Evil executive producer Jun Takeuchi revealed that plans are already in place to prepare the series for when RE remakes catch up to modern games, saying the series is being developed along “two tracks.”
It’s been a big year for the company; this year alone, Capcom has produced three critically-acclaimed titles in Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, alongside two movie adaptations in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil and Legendary’s Street Fighter flick, set to release in theaters on October 16, 2026.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
