Resident Evil, known as Biohazard (バイオハザード Baiohazādo?) in Japan, is a media franchise owned by the video game company Capcom. It was created by Shinji Mikami as a survival horror game series that was initiated with the eponymous PlayStation title Resident Evil in 1996. Since then, the game series has strayed from its roots to include action games, and has sold 45 million units as of March 2011. The Resident Evil media franchise has been expanded to comic books, novels and novelizations, sound dramas, live-action and the computer-generated feature films, and a variety of collectibles, such as action figures and strategy guides.