Think of the children
Resident Evil 3tells the story of specialized combat veterans trying to escape Raccoon City as the Umbrella Corporation tries to kill them. The multiplayer component, Resident Evil: Resistance, tells a similar story. Deep within a secretive Umbrella Corp. facility, four teenagers try to survive and escape.
The latter won’t be official, though. In a recent interview with Official PlayStation Magazine (and as reported by GamesRadar+), Resident Evil 3producer Peter Fabiano explained that the multiplayer situation doesn’t fit into the larger Resident Evil canon. “[It’s]basically set in Raccoon City with scenarios that make it impossible to fit in the actual timeline,” Fabiano said, evidently unwilling to entertain the notion that a bunch of kids could actually escape Mr. X.
Rather, Resistanceis part of the Resident Evil 3package because of its thematic ties. “Both of these titles have characters that are trying to escape somewhere or something, so thematically it made sense,” Fabiano explained.
Resistancehas connections to the larger Resident Evil universe, that much is obvious. But it isn’t telling an official story. Spiritually, it’s “Get the hell out of Dodge!” and that fits nicely into what Resident Evilhas been cultivating for well over two decades, which means it’s at home in Resident Evil 3.
Resident Evil: Resistance is “not actually canon”, confirms Capcom [GamesRadar+]