When the topic of horror video games is brought up, it’s nearly inevitable that someone will mention Resident Evil. Having sold 117 million units since its inception, Resident Evil is not only the most successful horror video game franchise of all time but is also one of the best-selling video game series ever. In addition to numerous video game entries, this success has led to a wide variety of spin-offs such as movies, TV series etc. and, given how large the franchise can appear to be, I thought it would be worth covering the history of the Resident Evil franchise.
Let’s start with the history of the first game. The origins of the first Resident Evil game lies in an earlier game that was released by Capcom, the company that develops and releases Resident Evil. Sweet Home, released in 1989, was based on the Japanese movie of the same name and features characters exploring a mansion while encountering supernatural beings with the gameplay revolving around RPG mechanics as well as item management, puzzles and multiple endings based on how many characters survive. Tokuro Fujiwara, who had directed Sweet Home, assigned Shinji Mikami, who had previously worked on several Disney video games, to be the new game’s director in 1993 with the intention of remaking Sweet Home under a different name due to rights issues. Initially being developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System before switching to the PlayStation, Resident Evil was released in Japan in 1996 as “Bio Hazard” with the name Resident Evil being used in the Western release. The game stripped away the role-playing elements that were present in Sweet Home, emphasised zombies although other creatures do exist within the mansion and a third-person fixed camera inspired by the 1992 Alone in the Dark game. The game was a surprise success with the original release and a later director’s cut version selling a combined 5 million copies over their lifetime and is often credited with popularising the survival horror genre.
The incredible success of the first game understandably made Capcom enthusiastic to produce sequels. Resident Evil 2 was released in 1998 to even greater critical acclaim and sales while Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was released in 1999 to strong sales although they were lower than the first two games, a trend that continued with the release of Resident Evil – Code: Veronica in 2000. We also began to see spin-offs around this time with the release of Resident Evil Survivor, a first person shooter, in 2000 and Resident Evil Gaiden, a top down action-adventure game, in 2001. In the same year, it was announced that Capcom and Nintendo had signed an exclusivity deal to release a remake of the original Resident Evil game, a prequel called Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo GameCube while it was also announced that the Resident Evil film, whose rights had been bought back in 1997, had entered production with Paul W. S. Anderson directing and Milla Jovovich starring.
The Resident Evil remake was released in 2002 and, despite critical acclaim, the game ended up underperforming when it came to sales, something that was repeated with the release of Resident Evil 0 later that year. In contrast, the Resident Evil film, released in 2002 as well, was received quite negatively by critics but proved to be very successful at the box office. Resident Evil 4 ended up having a troubled development, going through numerous versions, one of which ended up becoming the first Devil May Cry game, and eventually shifted to a more action-focused game. During this time, further spin-offs were released such as Resident Evil: Dead Aim and Resident Evil Outbreak in 2003 while Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2 and the second Resident Evil film titled “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” were released in 2004. The release of Resident Evil 4 in 2005 proved to be quite transformative for the franchise, introducing more action heavy gameplay and an over-the-shoulder view while retaining the horror atmosphere. The game was critically acclaimed but, more importantly, it sold incredibly well across both the GameCube and the PlayStation 2.
Be sure to check out the conclusion to this article in “The History Of The Resident Evil Franchise Part 2“!
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