If you’ve recently booted up the mobile version of Resident Evil 4, 7, or Village and discovered that you can’t play them without an internet connection, you’re not alone.
It’s common for many mobile titles to require an internet connection, especially gacha games that run checks to ensure there’s no cheating. However, it’s rare for single-player games to require an internet connection. As some fans online have discovered, recent updates to Resident Evil 4, 7, and Village on iOS have required an internet connection to boot up the games. The update notes for each game read, “The startup process has changed, so an internet connection is required to start this app.”
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This is obviously a completely strange choice, and users on Reddit have suggested that this could be due to data collection or DRM checking, but that’s just speculation, and the latter would be odd given how many single-player games don’t require an internet connection. Several other Reddit users have also expressed a desire to request refunds following this change, though given how many people have purchased the game, it’s unlikely that many will.
According to store data estimates from Appmagic (via Mobilegamer.biz) in July, the iOS version of Resident Evil 7 sold around 2,000 units, which is more or less oversold than oversold. This isn’t a mobile port of a big AAA game that’s known for underperforming, so there doesn’t seem to be much of a market for this type of game, especially considering it’s priced similarly to consoles. It also doesn’t help that it’s a pain to play with a touchscreen, so overall, you’re probably better off sticking with consoles or PCs.