Capcom Is Bringing Back an Old Video Game Series You May Have Forgotten

Capcom, a major video game company based in Japan, has announced a new Onimusha game. The game will come out on PlayStation 5 on September 25, 2026, and anyone with a PS5 can download a free demo right now.

Onimusha was popular in the early 2000s, but the last major new game in the series came out in 2006 — that's twenty years ago. Capcom has decided it is time to revive the franchise and bring it back to players.

What Is Onimusha?

The original Onimusha games were action games set in a world inspired by feudal Japan. They featured sword fighting, demons, and supernatural powers. The series was a hit on the PlayStation 2, which was a gaming console from the early 2000s.

When Onimusha was popular, games with Japanese themes and settings were still relatively new to many Western players, which helped the series stand out.

Why Did Capcom Bring It Back Now?

Capcom owns a lot of game franchises. Some, like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, have stayed popular and active. Others, like Onimusha, went dormant for years while the company focused its resources and creativity elsewhere.

Over the past decade, other game companies have successfully brought back old franchises that had been inactive for a long time. There is audience interest in games based on nostalgic memories of older titles. However, simply dusting off an old game is not enough to guarantee success. The new game still has to be good.

In this author's view, Capcom's willingness to invest in reviving Onimusha signals confidence that the old audience for the series still exists and that new players might discover it. The company has also become quite good at updating old franchises. Its recent Resident Evil remakes showed that Capcom can modernize a classic game while keeping what made it special in the first place.

How the Demo Helps

Capcom is using a strategy that has become common in the video game industry: releasing a free demo before the full game comes out. Think of it like a movie trailer that you can actually play for an hour or two.

This demo allows players to try the game early and give feedback. For Capcom, it provides valuable information about what players like and dislike before the company spends money on full-scale marketing and launch. In the modern era of gaming, where developing a major new title costs tens of millions of dollars, this kind of market testing reduces financial risk.

The September release date also positions the game during the busy holiday shopping season, when many people buy games as gifts.

Why PlayStation 5?

Capcom chose to make Onimusha exclusive to PlayStation 5, meaning it will only come out on that console. The PlayStation 5 has a large user base, particularly in Japan where both Capcom and PlayStation owner Sony have strong followings. Exclusive deals like this are one of the ways console makers compete with each other.

What This Means Broadly

The Onimusha revival tests an important question for the entire video game industry: can an old game franchise still be valuable after two decades of silence? If Onimusha sells well and players enjoy it, other game companies will likely try the same approach with their dormant franchises.

Capcom's recent success with reviving and modernizing its older franchises suggests the company knows how to do this well. How well this new Onimusha game performs will tell us something about whether that confidence is justified.