I am going to ask a simple question here. What is the Resident Evil series using as its binding element between multiple entries into the series?
It isn't survival horror. It isn't a set group of characters. It isn't a villain. It isn't gameplay. It isn't even zombies. What's left? Resident Evil jumped the tracks long ago, and it never asked the simple question of what binds its games together. Care to try the same exercise with other franchises? Let's see:
Mario - Titular character, cast, and even enemies repeat. The location does change, but is almost always the mushroom kingdom.
Metroid - Protagonist (Samus), villains (space pirates and Ridley), and technological basis (Chozo)
Metal Gear - Characters and story
Mega Man - Titular character, mechanics, and even stories.
Halo - Despite spanning a huge area, the protagonist and story elements are relatively uniform.
A game that uses the name of another is a cheap way to cash in on a fan base, unless something links them. RE lost the right to have spin-offs, whenever the actual origin series lacked binding elements.
Capcom created a steaming pile of crap with RE, and they continue to drive that train right off the tracks with every new incarnation. Every good release is followed up with crap, and Capcom is trying to homogenize the series into yet another zombie shooting gallery. They managed to do a better job of this with Dead Rising, yet instead of making RE unique they continue making it more like Dead Rising. They'll not earn another cent of my money unless they stop the DLC shenanigans, and they're destroying their own market by slowly strangling their franchises through painful homogenization. RE4 was an amazing game, and everything since then has been Capcom slowly sliding toward irrelevance.