DRW Shingen/Zombrex Paradox DR2 Spoilers

THIS PAGE CONTAINS DEAD RISING 2 SPOILERS. CLICK HERE FOR A SPOILER-FREE VERSION OF THIS THEORY.

The Zombrex Paradox is my theory relating to Zombrex, the logical conclusion of what we are told in Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2.

In Dead Rising, Isabella Keyes creates a suppressor for Frank West using hormones extracted from Queens. She mentions that they synthesized hormones in a lab, but were unable to properly test the suppressor.

This means that unless a viable synthetic substitute for those hormones is found, that the only way to create Zombrex is by harvesting Queens. This theory assumes one of the following:


 * that no viable synthetic substitute is found
 * if such a substitute is found that it is too difficult or costly to use it
 * if such a substitute is found, demand for Zombrex has outpaced the ability to synthesize the hormones necessary

Events during Dead Rising 2 indicate that one of these three conditions indeed exists, as Phenotrans arranged for the Fortune City outbreak.

Within the games we are not specifically told whether queen maturation kills the host for certain or not. There are two possible conclusions for this theory.

If multiple Queens from a single zombie can mature
As Queens only mature within zombie populations, a large number of zombies must be kept in captivity in order to ensure a steady supply.

However, once the demand for Zombrex outpaces this supply, it becomes necessary for more humans to become zombies in order to continue to meet the demand.

If Queen maturation kills the host
If queen maturation kills a host, then the number of zombies will steadily decrease as new queens mature. This will require a steady supply of new zombies in order to ensure sufficient supply to create the drug.

Dead Rising 2 supporting data
Gas Zombies, which appear to create mature queens faster, could fall under either possibility. We are only shown gas zombies producing queens while a sonic generator is running - it is not confirmed whether the gas zombies died due to the generator or due to the queen maturation.

Conclusion
Since this theory is proven true in Dead Rising 2, regardless of the specifics, then it is necessary for the makers of Zombrex to cause outbreaks in order to harvest queens. It is unknown how often they'd need to cause outbreaks - the initial Willamette outbreak took place in September 2006. Case Zero takes place September 12th 2007, Dead Rising 2 takes place September 26-29th 2010, and it is unknown at the time of this page's creation exactly when Case West takes place.

It is also possible that Carlito's plan discovered during overtime mode in Dead Rising caused massive outbreaks - we are not told for certain.