Zombies are an atrocious lot. One moves into the neighborhood, and before week's end, they're everywhere: loitering in the parks, leaving rancid meat in the streets, and holing up decent, law-abiding citizens in the local shopping mall or pub. It's a miserable situation, really.

　　And so it was for the Resident Evil 5 demo, which was released exclusively through Xbox Live last Monday. Microsoft revealed today that in the first seven days that the sampler was available, more than 1.8 million copies of the Resident Evil 5 demo were distributed. PlayStation 3 gamers pining for a chance to shoot up a small African shanty town replete with brain-eating zombies can pick up the free trial beginning today.

　　The Resident Evil 5 demo gives gamers a taste of the survival horror shooter's two-player co-op mode, letting players fight their way through two sections of the full game and solve a handful of puzzles along the way. In addition to online multiplayer and single-player action with a computer-controlled teammate, the demo will include split-screen multiplayer.

　　Resident Evil 5 proper is expected to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 13. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Resident Evil 5.