A real-time strategy take on Resident Evil has been announced for iPhone and Android, developed in “close collaboration with Capcom to ensure authenticity and quality.”
Resident Evil Survival Unit is being co-developed by Joycity Corporation, a Korean mobile gaming company that previously made Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, another licensed real-time strategy spin-off.
A full reveal of Survival Unit will take place next week but, until then, a single piece of artwork released today offers the smallest of clues to the game’s setting.
Amid a suitably dark and ominous atmosphere, a vehicle is stopped in the woods next to an advertising billboard for… you guessed it, Umbrella Corporation. The ad shows two happily smiling people, with the tagline: “Our Business is life itself…”
Umbrella existing likely places Resident Evil Survival Unit before the events of Resident Evil 4, by which point the evil organisation has crumbled. Could we be looking at the woods around the Arklay Mountains, near Raccoon City? We can just about glimpse a mountain range in the background, so it’s possible.
It’s easy to imagine a real-time shooter taking advantage of the events seen in and around the Resident Evil game, where several teams of STARS commandos — characters that fans have now grown to care about — most be poked and prodded into action, while kept alive for as long as you can.
An accompanying press release states that Survival Unit is “designed to appeal to both long-time fans and new players,” suggesting we will see some familiar faces or settings here.
And with the main series headed back to Raccoon City in Resident Evil Requiem, and supposedly picking up the storyline of Umbrella, now seems a good time to revisit the setting and events that started it all.
Resident Evil Survival Unit will launch in Japan, South Korea, North America, Europe, and Asia, published by anime company Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony. More details will be confirmed next week via an online showcase, set to broadcast via YouTube on July 10.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
