I think this way of doing it is the best way. It's a problem when a game gets announced too early, like Final Fantasy Versus XIII which ended up turning into FFXV and still isn't out. The problem with the series is that Capcom have actually listened to fans too much; not only is that giving too much voice to a small hardcore niche, it's not like fans all agree on everything anyway, so by doing what "the fans" want, "the fans" actually get ****ed off. Two (or more) parts of the same group. Developing it more privately like this is for the better, I believe. Capcom did it that way for RE1 and RE2, and they're masterpieces.
From 4 onwards, the series has tried to change based on fan feedback. REmake didn't sell all that well (to be fair, that was down to the Gamecube flopping, not REmake itself) so it was taken that fans really were sick of the old formula. Enter RE4: you were no longer scavenging ammo and trying to dodge zombies in an eerie mansion or police station, you were suplexing Spanish villagers, leaping head first out of 2nd storey windows through the god damn glass, dodging laser beams in one of many QTE sequences (people love those, right?), collecting Pesetas (several years after Spain had adopted the Euro) dropped by enemies to upgrade your sweet guns... And at the end you didn't sit exhausted in a helicopter as you escaped, possibly alone as the others were now dead, rather you rode off into the sunset on a jet-ski, the President of America's daughter making a move on you.
Given that many fans liked that, it seemed they wanted a more Hollywood action movie feel, so they made RE5. People moaned about that; "I liked it when Leon did pro-wrestling moves, I liked it when he backflipped over a laser beam, but this RE5 is just too action-y" they said. Capcom naturally weren't sure what to do. So then you get the schizophrenic RE6, trying to please everyone at once. And apparently it pleased no one (although it sold, what 5 million or more?)
