Resident Evil 6 was conceptualized soon after the release of
Resident Evil 5, and entered full development in 2009.
Resident Evil 5 producer
Jun Takeuchi said that he considered a "completely new system" for
Resident Evil 6, but ruled out his involvement. In March 2009, co-producer Masachika Kawata stated that the new installment was not decided upon, but admitted that it could take Capcom four to eight years to develop. Kawata later claimed that the new game will be drastically different from its predecessors. The game was directed by Eiichiro Sasaki, who also directed the
Resident Evil Outbreak series. When development of the game first begun, producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi wanted to revolve the game around the "ultimate horror entertainment", bearing in mind that the team considered the upcoming
Resident Evil 6 to be the flagship title of the horror genre. In a February 2012 interview, Hirabayashi stated that he went to lengths to balance "all of the things people love" about the series, so the team focused to orientate gameplay around horror themes. Each of the four campaigns was designed around a different expression of horror: Leon's story reflecting "gothic, classic
Resident Evil-style horror", Chris' story "a horror of the battlefield", Jake's story involving the fear of being stalked, and Ada's story being "a
very classic
Resident Evil-style" experience. In March 2012, Capcom admitted that it believed the survival-horror market was too small for
Resident Evil, and issued a statement that the development team would instead choose to orientate the gameplay around the action genre. The development of the game was led by
Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who was stated by Capcom to be aiming to "deliver the most impressive
Resident Evil title ever both in terms of scope and production values". Capcom also asserted that the game was meant to take an approach to "evolve" the series. The staff wanted to give the game a new setting with Sasaki wishing to place it in China. While the country of Edonia was not modelled from any particular country in Europe, it was given an Eastern European theme. It was Kobayashi's idea to bring back Leon for
Resident Evil 6, as well as make him central to the story. According to
Famitsu, the character of Jake Muller was designed to be "someone today's young people can empathize with". The game had a development staff of more than 600, making it Capcom's largest production to date. The decision to bring back zombies into
Resident Evil 6 was made by Kobayashi, who felt that they were a popular component for the franchise, as well as complying per fans' requests. Hirabayashi admitted that the game had radically changed at the end of the development cycle, due to the new concepts it introduced to the series. An official
trailer was released on 19 January 2012. At a
Microsoft press briefing at
E3 2012, the first gameplay demonstration was shown, depicting Leon and Helena fighting hordes of zombies in China. A playable
demo of
Resident Evil 6 was scheduled for release on the
PlayStation Network and
Xbox Live Marketplace on 5 September 2012. Capcom later announced that the demo would become available for both
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 owners on 18 September 2012. Early access to the demo was included with ''
Dragon's Dogma''. Originally scheduled to be released on 20 November 2012, the game's release date was pushed forward to 2 October 2012. Prior to the game's launch, several copies of the game were stolen and were sold in
Poland.
Resident Evil 6 was also contained in
Biohazard Anniversary Package, a special edition for
Resident Evils seventeenth anniversary released in Japan on 22 March 2013 alongside the PC version.
Resident Evil 6 was re-released on
PlayStation 4 and
Xbox One with graphical enhancements and all DLC on 29 March 2016. It was released on the
Nintendo Switch on 29 October 2019.
Downloadable content In response to a public backlash over classifying on-disc content as
downloadable content (DLC), Capcom released a
patch in December 2012 free of charge. The patch included new camera controls, a new difficulty mode named "No Hope", an option to play Ada's campaign without having to complete the other three, and the addition of an online co-op partner for Ada's campaign simply called "Agent". Unlike any other character in the game, Agent cannot interact with doors and treasure chests; he also disappears when cutscenes are triggered. On 18 December 2012, a new multiplayer (DLC) was released with three new multiplayer modes: "Predator", "Survivors" and "Onslaught". Predator mode is a series of quick fire rounds with up to six players who take turns as the fearsome Ustanak and have full access to its weapons. The other players in "Predator" mode must avoid capture and being killed by the Ustanak. Human players score points for successful attacks, but also lose points for being caught and/or taken down. This match type is over once all have played as the Ustanak, with the participant with the most points crowned as the winner. Survivors mode is
Resident Evils take on the classic solo and team based
deathmatch mode. Survivors is available for 2 to 6 players. Onslaught is a two player mode where each must clear waves of oncoming enemies. The twist comes when a player completes a
combo chain as this will send enemies over to their opponent's screen. On 4 April 2013, a
Left 4 Dead 2 crossover DLC was released for the PC version, adding the main characters and two monsters from
Left 4 Dead 2 to the PC-exclusive The Mercenaries: No Mercy mode in
Resident Evil 6. Various weapons, characters and monsters from
Resident Evil 6 have also been added as optionally downloadable replacement skins on the PC version of
Left 4 Dead 2. ==Reception==