Resident Evil 2 Arcade Makes Its Western Debut at IAAPA Expo 2026, Launching Spring 2027

Raccoon City is coming to an arcade near you. Bandai Namco is giving Resident Evil 2 Arcade (called BIOHAZARD RE:2 ARCADE in Japan) its official Western debut at IAAPA Expo 2026 in Orlando this week, and the game now has a firm launch window: spring 2027, in Japan, Europe and the Americas.

If you have been missing proper big-cabinet gun games, this is the one to watch. It is built on Capcom’s 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, and Bandai Namco has gone all in on the hardware.

What is in the cabinet?

According to the game’s official site and Bandai Namco’s IAAPA announcement, this is a two-player cabinet packed with ways to make you jump:

• Recoil gun controllers with blowback, so every shot kicks back in your hands.
• Two-player co-op, with you and a mate standing side by side against the creatures.
• A vibrating floor and air blasts, so you feel the Tyrant before you see him.
• 5.1 surround sound with a subwoofer built in.

Arcade Heroes, who first spotted the game on location test in the US back in 2025, also notes that the guns have changed since those early tests and are now coloured rather than realistic black.

From location tests to a launch date

The road here has been a long one. After the early US tests, Bandai Namco ran location tests in Japan in March and again in May 2026, at venues including Round1, Taito Station and GiGO. The spring 2027 date was confirmed at Japan’s Amusement Expo earlier this month, where Bandai Namco held a special stage show for the game.

The rest of Bandai Namco’s IAAPA line-up

Resident Evil is the headline, but it is not alone on the stand. RePlay Magazine and Arcade Heroes both report two more new machines:

• PAC-MAN Baller Derby: four players shoot hoops around a big LED display, racing each other to the finish. Bandai Namco says it placed second out of 212 titles on its first location tests in the US and UK.
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Ninja Coin Clash: a coin pusher with a card vending feature. Bandai Namco is keeping its looks under wraps for now.

You will find Bandai Namco on booths S809, S4409 and S4609, and Arcade Heroes says some Raw Thrills and Adrenaline Amusements games will be playable there too. As James Anderson of Bandai Namco Amusement Europe put it: “Every year, we bring our strongest lineup of machines to IAAPA Expo, and this year we have gone even bigger.”

Our take

A brand new, full-size Resident Evil gun game from the company behind Time Crisis is exactly what arcades need. Recoil guns, a shaking floor and co-op horror is a recipe for queues, and it is good to see Namco back in the light gun game after we wrote about the light gun renaissance happening without Namco, Sega or Nintendo. Spring 2027 cannot come soon enough.

Would you queue for this one, or is your home light gun setup scratching the itch? Tell us in the comments.