Resident Evil Outbreak

• Kevin Ryman (voiced by Kirk Thornton) - A member of the Raccoon City Police Department. Kevin applied for the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) but failed because of his carefree attitude. He is an accomplished marksman. Kevin was a regular at Jack's Bar and was there when the outbreak began. He has a "pot shot" ability that allows him to perform more general bullet damage than anyone else and is an all rounder who begins with his own weapon.
• David King (voiced by Bob Papenbrook) - A handyman at Raccoon City, who's able to create weapons using his tools. He was drinking at Jack's Bar before the outbreak begins. His age was unknown. He can fix weapons or create new ones if the player finds material.
• Mark Wilkins (voiced by Beau Billingslea) - A veteran of the Vietnam War. He settled down in Raccoon City with his wife and son. At the time of the Outbreak, Mark was employed as a security guard. He was eating at Jack's Bar with a co-worker when the story begins. He has the most HP out of the starting cast, not counting secret unlockables, but he can't hide in certain places teammates could.
• Alyssa Ashcroft (voiced by Wendee Lee) - An investigative reporter in Raccoon City. She had her memory suppressed by an Umbrella Researcher to cover-up an incident in the Arklay Mountains. She can pick locks and access areas teammates can't and has a weaker version of Kevin's pot shot ability.
• Cindy Lennox (voiced by Julie Maddalena) - A waitress at Jack's Bar. She was in Jack's Bar when the infected attacked. She can hold more herbs than any of her allies and even begins with a usable supply but her other stats are below average and she has the second lowest HP of the starting cast.
• Yoko Suzuki (voiced by Laura Thorne) - A university student and former Umbrella Corporation employee. Her memories were suppressed about her time at Umbrella when she became a burden to them. She has the unique backpack ability that allows her to hold eight overall items, double that of everyone else's general items, though her other stats are among the lowest in the game, and she also has the lowest HP of the starting cast.
• Jim Chapman (voiced by Karim Morgan) - A subway staffer that is easily scared. He has a unique "luck" mechanic and could play dead but also has the fastest infection growth rate of all the starting cast.
• George Hamilton (voiced by Bob Buchholz) - A surgeon at Raccoon General Hospital. He can create medicine from herbs and other supplies, provided the player has the proper ingredients

There are five individual scenarios in this game, which are not set in chronological order. The first, "Outbreak", takes place at the beginning of the outbreak, as the police prepare to destroy the zombie horde using explosives. "Below Freezing Point" deals with the events in the former underground laboratory of Umbrella, where a rogue virologist, Monica, attempts to steal bio-weapons research and deal with her former co-worker, Yoko Suzuki. "The Hive" involves the survivors taking refuge in the Raccoon General Hospital, which is also featured in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, while it is under assault from a colony of infected leeches. "Hellfire", set the same day as "Outbreak", involves a group of survivors fleeing into the Apple Inn hotel that turns out to be on fire and swarming with lickers. The final scenario, "Decisions, Decisions", regards the survivors' search for a cure to the T-virus, which sends them to Raccoon City University, where the eight different characters must wisely choose a decision to survive the puzzling secrets hidden in the university; they must then escape the city before it is destroyed.

According to an interview with producer Noritaka Funamizu, the first concept of Biohazard Outbreak, as it was known originally, was known before the release of Resident Evil 2 in 1998. With growing interest in the concept of network gaming over consoles, Shinji Mikami, the director of the first Resident Evil, suggested to Funamizu that he should have a try. Early on in the design, Funamizu made a small multi-player mini-game in which the player must survive the longest time possible; the team decided to remove it due to its failure to encourage teamwork—players would instinctively run away from the horde and be slaughtered rather than help one another to ensure their own survival. They decided that what made Resident Evil scary was its lack of multiplayer, forcing gamers to play "on their own". The team then chose that the game would follow its own story like the other games in the series, but keep the option for multi-player.[9] The game development was later put on hold.

Capcom announced on March 31, 2007, that they were shutting down the online servers.[10]

Prior to 2002, Capcom decided to revive development of the game, based on the research gathered from the first attempt. Production Studio 1 began its development of the game, as opposed to Mikami's Studio 4. In February 2002, a Sony press conference regarding the PlayStation 2 revealed the game—previously unheard-of by the public, it had a working title of Biohazard Online. This led to confusion amongst the audience before Capcom released a statement confirming its existence.[11] Resident Evil Outbreak was a part of an initiative from Capcom's Production Studio 1 to develop three network focused games on the PlayStation 2. The other games were Auto Modellista and Monster Hunter. Capcom's goal was to have at least one of the games reach a million sales. Both Monster Hunter and Resident Evil Outbreak eventually reached this goal.[12][13]

The game made an appearance at Sony's conference on May 21 at E3 2002, with a video showcasing real-time 3D backgrounds (as opposed to pre-rendered); revealing four of the characters and demonstrating the ad-lib system and character communication.[14] The "ad-lib system" was chosen over conventional microphone chat because the development team argued that it would ruin the atmosphere. Instead, limited chat options were used for conversation between users; a player would walk up to another and deliver a line from a particular conversational category (e.g. "help" and "go" categories).[9] No solid release date was given at that time.[15]

Later that year the game was renamed Biohazard Network. By October, eighteen different scenarios were in development, with even more in the concept phase.[9] In November, Capcom released various pieces of media, showing eight playable characters and familiar-scenarios such as "Flashback". The occupations of the characters were also given.[16]

In January 2003, further information was provided, mostly regarding interactive NPCs (non-player characters). Capcom boasted such actions as enemy NPCs who would attack the player and other ones that would run away when approached. Screenshots of "Flashback", "Underbelly", "The Hive" and other scenarios were released.[17]

By May 2003, the game's title had been changed. This time, it had been changed to Biohazard Outbreak (Resident Evil Outbreak outside Japan),[18] and the number of scenarios was reduced to the five scenarios. Another five scenarios did not make the initial cut, although they were complete enough to be featured in the E3 2002 trailer, and were developed into the sequel Resident Evil Outbreak File #2. In September, doubts were raised as to Outbreak's online game-play in Europe, but Capcom was adamant that it would at least try to find a way to solve the problem in time for release.[19]

Promotion at E3 2003

The European release was heavily delayed, finally released in September 2004—nine months after Japan and the United States saw its release. Back in March Capcom had given in on securing Outbreak's network due to the numerous problems faced with establishing a network in a region simultaneously for dozens of languages, and securing service providers; as well as the usual PAL/NTSC differential.[20]