It's been nearly three years since Resident Evil 5 was first released, but the next full installment in the franchise may finally be at hand. A viral marketing campaign with a decidedly apocalyptic theme has been tied to Capcom, with a payoff announcement expected tomorrow afternoon.

　　Why are the graffiti taggers always the first to know about the coming end of humanity? The campaign is centered at NoHopeLeft.com, a blog hosting pictures and videos of graffiti from around the world. Most of the tags show the slogan "No Hope Left," with a sort of inverted biohazard logo. (In Japan, the Resident Evil series is known as BioHazard.) A handful of pictures in the blog also include a date: January 19, 2012, with the latest video pairing that with a time, 2:00 p.m. Pacific.

　　While the website domain is registered to UK-based hosting service Webfusion with no information on who is actually operating the site, a report on The Sixth Axis has tied the campaign to Capcom. A London-based writer for the site recognized one of the locations for the graffiti, went to it in person, and saw that it was not a defaced billboard but an ad in itself and contacted the billboard company responsible for the spot. The company in turn confirmed that Capcom had put up the ad.

　　When asked for comment, a representative with the publisher simply said, "Capcom has made no announcements."

　　Resident Evil 6 has long been expected from the publisher. In 2010, then-managing director Keiji Inafune said he wanted to get Resident Evil 6 made as soon as possible. The specter of Resident Evil 6 was brought up again at last year's Tokyo Game Show and further cemented in November when the game appeared (albeit for a brief time) on a professional voice actor's resume.

　　For more on the series, check out GameSpot's review of Resident Evil 5.