A bunch of classic Capcom titles have just been made available to buy on Steam.
Resident Evil (1996), Resident Evil 2 (1998), Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999), and Breath of Fire IV are all available to buy now on the digital storefront for £3.99 / $4.99, with that price expected to rise to £7.99 / $9.99 when their launch discount ends (h/t: Gematsu).
As you might expect, these new releases are simply reissues of the GOG versions we've seen published over the past two years. However, they are already proving divisive with members of the gaming community. This is due to Capcom once again adding the third-party DRM "The Enigma Protector" to each of these titles — something which was originally absent from the GOG releases.
This is the same DRM that Capcom has been quietly adding to several of its new and classic releases on Steam over the last few years (including the Steam version of GOG's Dino Crisis reissues), and which has regularly led to complaints from players regarding its impact on performance.
When the DRM was added to Resident Evil Revelations, for instance, back in January 2024, players noted an increase in slowdown and crashes, leading Capcom to eventually pull Enigma from the game. Meanwhile, just last month, Capcom briefly added it to the 2023 Resident Evil 4 Remake before removing it again after it reportedly caused CPU performance issues.
Given that these games are decades old and already widely available elsewhere, DRM-free, it's a bit confusing why Capcom has decided to add it here, especially when there's a risk of performance issues and a reported impact on the lowest recommended system requirements.
All four of the games now sit at a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, suggesting that for some this is not a dealbreaker, but if you look at the wider reaction online in the Steam Discussions and on social media, it doesn't take long to find people criticising Capcom's decision to add DRM, alongside the occasional complaint about the lack of dedicated achievements. As a result, there are many who are making the point of recommending the GOG versions, over these new Steam editions.
At the very least, it does seem the Resident Evil games do work on Steam Deck, but as the Gloomwood developer @TafferKing451 notes, you'll need to make a custom input layout, as the default Deck layout doesn’t work.
What do you think? Is this a dealbreaker for you? Or are you happy to see the games arrive on Steam?