Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Nine years after the release of the last mainline instalment in the series, a new Dead Rising might be in the works at Capcom. A familiar face could be set to return according to rumors.

Created by Keiji Inafune in 2006, the Dead Rising franchise has sold 18 million copies worldwide, ranking as Capcom’s sixth most successful intellectual property. While the action-adventure series lags far behind top-selling IPs like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, it still made its mark on an entire generation of players for its chaotic and unapologetically over-the-top zombie-slaying fun.

Hailed as one of the greatest zombie games of all time, the first entry in the series centered around the adventures of Frank West in the fictional town of Willamette, Colorado, whose mall is crawling with formidable psychopaths and missions that must be completed before the clock runs out. The game got a full makeover in 2024 with a deluxe remaster adding a host of quality-of-life improvements and gameplay tweaks, alongside overhauled visuals and character models. And a direct follow-up to the original could be out in the coming years.

Although no sequel has been officially announced, notable leakers at MP1st report that Capcom is developing another major Dead Rising title. Contrary to rumors about a Dead Rising reboot that circulated around the internet in 2023, the project would be neither a remaster nor a remake, but an entirely new entry moving the series to Hollywood, with most of the action unfolding inside an enclosed movie studio lot.

According to the site’s sources, the game may herald the return of Frank West, forced alongside other survivors to participate in a series of trials designed by an unhinged film director hellbent on creating the perfect movie. Familiar characters like Isabela Keyes and the series’ iconic psychopaths are also expected to make a comeback. Needless to say, zombies would still roam around the place to spice up the action.

While this much-anticipated sequel could be a long while in the making, as no release date has been hinted at, a new Dead Rising would align with Capcom’s plans to reactivate its dormant IPs. Last year, the one-minute Ōkami trailer aired during The Game Awards was enough to send long-time fans into a frenzy over a sequel they’d barely dared to imagine. Since then, the Japanese publisher has been hard at work resuscitating legacy series like Onimusha. Scheduled for release next year, Way of the Sword is a samurai revival playing out in Edo-era Kyoto.

Speaking with IGN, the development team behind Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster previously revealed that Capcom was eager to expand upon the franchise in the future. Much like the latest remaster, new entries would probably tone down on the series’ signature goofiness. While it cleverly blended frantic beat ‘em up action with unforgiving survival horror, the original series felt very much of its time in certain respects, with the remaster no longer including an erotic mode for photos, citing these creepshots as neither appropriate nor required. Still, the poor reception of Dead Rising 4 showed Capcom that standardizing the series could be a slippery slope, as soft-pedaling its campy undertones alienated many fans, who also lamented the removal of key features like the timer system.

While the release of a new Dead Rising seems congruent with the publisher’s renewed focus on older IPs, only time will reveal if this rumor proves true. Meanwhile, fans of undead horror can brace themselves for the imminent launch of Resident Evil Requiem in February 2026. From fast-paced co-op shooters like Project Zomboid to pixelated psychological adventures like Holstin, many more zombie-based games have come out on consoles and PCs.

The iGaming sector has also ventured into the zombie genre. Gamers may grab free spins to spin their way through thousands of machine slots. These offers are often included in sign-up promotions. They allow newcomers to claim welcome bonuses to explore a site’s catalog without making a deposit. Whether on mobile or browser, players can sample slots such as Fear the Zombies, Spartans vs Zombies, and many more.

2026 is looking packed on the zombie apocalypse front, with several games like John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando and Valor Mortis branding their seals on the genre. If rumors are to be believed, a direct sequel to Capcom’s 2006 zombie title may join that promising line-up. Known internally as “Rec,” a new Dead Rising instalment has reportedly been in the pipeline since 2023.