Resident Evil (animated film series)

Resident Evil
The original logo of the series
Genres	Survival horror Third-person shooter First-person shooter
Developers	Capcom
Publishers	Capcom
Creators	Shinji Mikami Tokuro Fujiwara
Platforms	List Android Arcade BlackBerry Dreamcast Game Boy Color GameCube iOS Microsoft Windows Mobile phones N-Gage Nintendo 3DS Nintendo 64 Nintendo DS Nintendo Switch PlayStation PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation Portable PlayStation Vita Sega Saturn Shield Android TV Shield Portable Shield Tablet Steam Machine Wii Wii U Windows Phone Xbox 360 Xbox One Zeebo
Platform of origin	PlayStation
First release	Resident Evil March 22, 1996
Latest release	Resident Evil 7: Biohazard January 24, 2017

Resident Evil, known as Biohazard (バイオハザード, Baiohazādo) in Japan, is a survival horror video game-based media franchise created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara and owned by the video game company Capcom. The franchise focuses around a series of survival horror video games, but has since branched out into comic books, novels, novelizations, sound dramas, live-action films, animated sequels to the games, and a variety of associated merchandise, such as action figures. The series' overarching plot focuses on multiple characters, and their roles in recurring outbreaks of zombies and other monsters, initially due to the release of the T-virus, but still more biological weapons over time, created mainly by the fictional Umbrella Corporation and various other organizations in later games.

The eponymous first game in the series was released in 1996 as a survival horror video game, but the franchise has since grown to encompass other video game genres. The series is a mix of action and horror film-inspired plotlines, exploration, and puzzle solving. It is Capcom's biggest franchise in terms of software sales, with over 77 million units sold worldwide (as of March 31, 2017).

The development of the game, originally titled Biohazard, began in 1993 when Tokuro Fujiwara conceived it as a remake of his earlier 1989 Capcom horror game Sweet Home, when the project was then led by Shinji Mikami. When in late 1994 marketing executives were setting up to bring the game to the United States, it was pointed out that a DOS game had been recently registered under that name, so a contest was held among company personnel to choose a new name; this competition turned up Resident Evil, the name currently known in the west. In Japan the games are still known as Biohazard.