Resident Evil

History

The original Resident Evil made its debut in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation. Despite its unorthodox gameplay, it was both a critical and commercial success, leading to the production of two immediate sequels, Resident Evil 2 in 1998 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999, both also for the PlayStation. A port of Resident Evil was released for the Sega Saturn and a port of Resident Evil 2 was released for the Nintendo 64. In addition, ports of all three were released for Windows. The fourth game in the series, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, was developed for the Sega Dreamcast and released in 2000 (followed by ports of 2 and 3). A Sony PlayStation 2 version was later produced in the form of an updated version titled Code: Veronica X.

Despite earlier announcements that the next game in the series would be released for the PS2 (which resulted in the creation of an unrelated game titled Devil May Cry), series' creator and producer Shinji Mikami decided to target the series exclusively to the Nintendo GameCube. The next three games in the series: a remake of the original Resident Evil, the prequel Resident Evil Zero (originally planned as an Nintendo 64 game) and Resident Evil 4, would be exclusive to the GameCube. In addition, the console would receive ports of the previous Resident Evil sequels (2, 3 and Code: Veronica X), as they originally appeared on the PlayStation and Dreamcast. The remake and Zero were both released in 2002. Despite this exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo, Capcom still managed to release a few Resident Evil spinoffs (see spinoffs) for the PS2 that were not part of the main series. Eventually, Capcom managed to release both a GameCube and PS2 version of Resident Evil 4 in 2005. The PS2 version followed the original GameCube release by months and contains additional supplemental features. A Windows port is also scheduled to be released in April, 2007.

Future releases

The series is set to make its next-generation debut with Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. In contrast to the previous exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo, executive producer Keiji Inafune commented that Capcom wants the series to grow into a multi-platform franchise, and expects a simultaneous release date for both versions of the game.[5], a first in the series' history.

Another new game tentatively titled Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is also being planned exclusively for Nintendo's Wii, but little more is known about the title.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_%28series%29