Resident Evil 5 Updated and Playable on Steam

It’s not often you see older games updated with a substantial change, much less one that’s 14 years old. In a surprise to many Resident Evil fans this week, the impossible happened. Resident Evil 5 received a new official update that incorporates split screen co-op and removes Games for Windows Live (GFWL) support. This brings the PC version more in line with its console equivalents and lets it be playable without needing a community fix.

Resident Evil 5 was first released in March 2009 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with the PC release coming six months later in September of that same year. It aimed to capitalize on the success of Resident Evil 4 by incorporating co-op and bringing back fan-favorite Chris Redfield. The campy action-horror entry became another huge success for Capcom and has since been ported to later-generation consoles and most recently to the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

The PC version has long been considered the worst of the bunch though. GFWL integration was always met with rebuttals from many players when it was active, and that only became worse after it was discontinued, as this led to most games having a lot of issues. Resident Evil 5 already felt like a lesser version with split-screen co-op not being officially supported and it was a much worse experience after GFWL shut down. The game was updated and migrated to Steamworks in 2015, but this wasn’t a perfect solution and some have had problems ever since. This new update finally solves all of that.

The timing on this update is great for those looking to revisit the game before the series jumped the shark with Resident Evil 6. With the remake of Resident Evil 4 releasing later this month, which we just saw a trailer for at last week’s Sony State of Play, those on PC will also be able to reliably jump into the follow-up.