The game was renamed from its original Japanese title "Biohazard" because it would be almost impossible to register the name in America. Capcom's Chris Kramer points out that both a "Crappy DOS-based game" and a New York-based Punk band were both named "Biohazard" in the US. This caused the team to have a company-wide contest to rename the game. The winner, "Resident Evil", was initially felt to be a cheesy title by most, but the name stuck because no one could think of a better title.
For this first game in the Resident Evil series, Capcom's only instructions to creator Shinji Mikami were to make a horror game in the vein of Sweet Home (1989) (which was based on the horror film Sweet Home (1989)); he was otherwise free to develop the game as he saw fit. Mikami has credited both Sweet Home (1989) and the game Alone in the Dark (1992) as his main inspirations for Resident Evil, since both games are about a group of people entering a haunted mansion (albeit haunted by supernatural entities or occult monsters rather than genetically engineered abominations). Sweet home designer and uncredited director Tokuro Fujiwara also served as producer. Other influences that Mikami has acknowledged are Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and The Shining (1980).
The game series has worldwide sales of more than 100 million copies as of 2020.
It is never mentioned where in the US the fictional Raccoon City and the nearby Arklay Mountains are located, apart from that it is a Midwestern town. However, in the novels based on the games written by S.D. Perry, it is said to be located in Pennsylvania.
Along with the remake, this is the only "Biohazard"/"Resident Evil" to feature a "best-case-scenario" ending which does not elude to a possible sequel or spin-off and suggests that "everything is finally over". The reason for this is possibly because the company was uncertain how well the game would be received, so this game could stand on its own story-wise if it failed economically.