Capcom’s Chris Kramer has spilled the beans as to why the company’s mammoth selling Biohazard franchise became known as Resident Evil outside of Japan.
The communications and community boss revealed that decision to rename the zombie series for western markets boiled down to two things – the existence of a certain U.S. hardcore band and a “crappy DOS-based game,” both of which just happened to be called Biohazard.
“As an example, I pointed out that a crappy DOS-based game had just come out in the US called ‘Biohazard’ (not to mention the New York hardcore band of the same name) and that we’d never be able to secure the mark,” explained Kramer.
“As a result, the head of marketing held a company-wide contest to come up with a new name for the game." Oddly enough, Kramer initially demurred the idea renaming the game Resident Evil, admitting he found the idea “super-cheesy.”
"I voted against the name – I thought it was super-cheesy; can’t remember what I felt was a better alternative, probably something stupid about zombies – but the rest of the marketing crew loved it and were ultimately able to convince Capcom Japan and Mikami-san that the name fit,” he added.
And the rest, as they say, is history.