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Updated Resident Evil Franchise sales (RE7 at 200K of 2M fisc year goal 3 months in)
- Thread starter CrimsonCrescendo
- Start date
Roni
Gold Member
MGSV is divisive, RE6 took a definitive hit in criticism
NOTaStalk3r
Banned
I wish they didn't market RE7 as a "VR game." I was kinda turned off by that idea since I don't want to have a heart attack, and I felt like playing without VR would be a lesser experience. However, now that I'm actually playing it, I find the game to be fantastic. It amazes me that the same people that put together RE4 5 an 6 had it in them to make a really incredible atmospheric game like this.
Spieler Eins
Member
The delay has been so long, they definitely need to think about a good release strategy instead of dropping it randomly. That is, if they've actually gotten it ready.
Shifty
Member
WTF I remember Steam reviews were poor near launch. When did opinions on it change?
RE6 has potentially the best third-person shooting mechanics of its generation. The problem is that the tutorialization, encounter design, presentation and story are kind of garb.
The four campaigns drag on and really aren't fun until you know how to play at a high level, and at that point it's better just to play Mercenaries mode and get straight to the gameplay.
On-topic, Capcom are crazy for those sales expectations. RE7 was awesome, but you can't split a franchise's fanbase between action, horror and old-school and then expect them all to bite when you go back to your roots.
At this point the best plan would be to to lock down a subseries for each subgenre and split budget between them instead of betting the farm on big mainline entries.
Jawmuncher
Member
The whole "lets hide Ethan's face and make him the player" in a sense was definitely an issue. Since RE has always been about the main cast of characters. There's been numerous posts about how the Bakers are the true stars of the game. Which I think is right. But that still leaves your main cast of ethan and Mia in the shadows of no one cares by the majority, when you go that route. Ethan and Mia shoudlve been like Claire and Leon in RE2. New faces to the series people would look forward to seeing again. IMO they didn't succeed in that. Since I'd rather just see jack baker come back over all of them lol.
CD'S BAR
Member
might be the worst first post I've seen on this forum. And that says a lot.
What were the comparative budgets for 6 and 7? Need to consider return on investment to say one was really a commercial failure relative to the other. Straight up sales volume isn't everything.
Worst case just release the next shitty bloated action shooter as a spinoff title.
Lack of extra modes and or multiplayer was a mistake for 7, though.
Considering the item management that people loved so much about the first Dead Rising, I'd argue that a survivor horror-spin on Dead Rising would be a better option. DR has already been trashed for becoming more action-orientated with each installment and that way all you whining fans classic RE can go elsewhere and let us have actual fun with action RE. =)
stanislavskov
Banned
Silly? RE4 had you saving the president's daughter from a world-domination plot. And while punching a boulder was a dumb QTE, the melee system in RE6 is a good gameplay mechanic.
I don't see any pacing issues in 6 unless you try to tackle more than one campaign at a time or two or more campaigns back-to-back. Within each campaign, the pacing is very well crafted.
Don't see how the level design is "crap" as each scenario felt designed to showcase the gameplay while presenting different and interesting challenges. Heck, even bosses were made all the more fun by allowing you to find two more players online who happened to be about to face the same boss.
RSB
Banned
OrbitalBeard
Member
Pretty sad. RE7 is a truly great game.
I do think RE needs another big budget action game though. Not a low to mid budget Revelations title.
I do think RE needs another big budget action game though. Not a low to mid budget Revelations title.
I agree totally.
Mia was well animated and had cool moments but her design had little to no flair.She was kind of..Generic.Ethan was nonexistent.
First person alienated a lot of people too.
I really did love the bakers and the mansion area,however.It was really fantastic.
Shifty
Member
It also had an atmosphere that was believable as a horror game, whereas RE6 was a Michael Bay flick.
Playing them sequentially is how you finish the game though. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not in the habit of dropping a new game until I'm done with it.
You're not wrong about the level design serving the gameplay, but I think the point is more that gameplay-wise 6 shed the last vestiges of 4/5's horror elements by going full TPS instead of limiting the player with tank controls.
That feeds into the level design, and so you get the linear corridors of 4/5 minus the atmosphere, minus the claustrophobic gameplay, and the end result is lacking. The key and object puzzles in Leon's campaign ended up feeling laughably out-of-place.
Jawmuncher
Member
The marketing costs for both were basically the same going by the interview
https://www.videogamer.com/news/cap...-or-10s-but-im-sure-well-see-a-few-8s-as-well
That's only one piece of the picture. But I don't recall anything that ever put RE6 as a failure or a game that didn't make money in terms of its sales. It failed to reach expectations but so did RE7. The only difference is they went out of their way to say "it's profitable".
In the case of RE6 I don't think the lack of that 100% means it didn't either.
Renna Hazel
Member
I wonder if the demo turned people off. I absolutely loved RE4 and 5 so I had to at least give it a shot. The demo where absolutely nothing happens was a big turn off to me.
This might be true. The demo is not representative of the final product, at all.
Ethan being a piece of cardboard didn't help either. Devs should really stop with those faceless protagonists.
If they could translate all that was great about 7 to a 3rd person view, without resorting to waves of enemies and wrestling combos then I might get my perfect game
Jawmuncher
Member
IMO I think capcom is still undecided on what they'll do next. In the RE7 dev diary the closing comments are "RE8 might be different from RE7, but it will retain the spirit of survival horror" or something like that.
I wouldn't be surprised to see RE8 go back to third Person and try this style of gameplay. However I doubt we'll see them go RE8 full on action just like RE6.
If anything I stand by the gameplay style will be retained. With the first person view being the first thing on the chopping block unless they figure out a way to bridge both into one game.
Dr. Carroll
Banned
In which case, RE6 360 got 31 positive, 33 mixed, and 7 negative. Which is otherwise known as "divisive".
Franchise, schmanchise. That doesn't fit the definition of "panned" no matter how much detractors want to believe it. And like I said, the point is kinda moot anyway. It's not like Metacritic determines a game's quality.
stanislavskov
Banned
I think any pretense of atmosphere the series had ended with RE4. If anything, RE4 made the series become a parody of horror tropes mixed with non-stop action (exactly like RE5 and RE6). I mean, how can you be scared of anything in RE4 when close to every enemy in that game is suscetible to a roundhouse kick? Sure, RE6 has bigger action, but let's not pretend RE4 was anything other than an action game.
This is a bad take. RE7 is good and RE6 is dogshit.
kunonabi
Member
3rd person would have gone a long way and not just because i hate the viewpoint. The combat and especially the boss design werent really properly constructed for first person.
CD'S BAR
Member
Sorry I meant 7 as the "commercial failure" in this case (though the better game critically), considering it has sold much less than 6 so far. I have to imagine the actual development budget was significantly less than 6. And may be I'm wrong but I'd guess the development time and logistics (6 had like 3 or 4 teams working on it iirc) given the smaller scale was more manageable.
Shame we don't have actual budget numbers to compare, but I think we're more likely to see a re8 closer to 7 than 6 - thankfully - all things considered.
Jawmuncher
Member
I do agree that It's highly unlikely we see a RE title the size of RE6 ever again.
At the same time here's hoping the amount of on disc content there was in RE7 also doesn't become the series standard moving forward. There really isn't much there.
potatohead
Member
Clarkus Darkus
Member
Let's hope the not a hero dlc will boost R7 sales past the 4mill mark. After all, People keep saying not seeing familiar faces affected sales. This one is all about Chris Redfield.
Jawmuncher
Member
They definitely need to keep with the Campaign and one bonus mode. Like every other RE title has. The fact that one of the modes was held off to be made DLC is bullshit.
I still say a new character could work. Though maybe perhaps from the get go have the new character have some sort of tie to a classic character. Whether it be familial or a mentor like role.
Hell you can even ditch that if you at least make the character themselves interesting. The whole faceless thing just isn't a good idea for a series that is really big on its characters now.
Hell Rev 2 showed new characters work when done well. Moira is a fan favorite now.
Well it's gonna be free at least.
DarkLordMalik
Member
What was wrong in the first post? Can you explain it as an adult instead of trying to label everyone in this thread as 'obnoxious RE6 fans' and dismiss their opinion.
Capcom made a terrible decision when they decided to 1. bet on VR 2. make a drastic change to their biggest worldwide franchise 3. decided to pursue the look of indie horror games.
I don't really need to show and prove anything for it since the sales number are right in the OP and even Nirolak, who is pretty open minded when it comes to general sales talk, states that RE6 did well for Capcom, how is that hard to understand? Meanwhile Nirolak has also mentioned that while RE 7 shipped 3.5 million during its first 3 months, it has only managed to ship 200k after that, which is a horrible figure no matter how you spin it.
Meanwhile Capcom started to re-release their ports for the action-based Resident Evil games which have proven to be a surprise success with Resident Evil 6 port even shipping 1.1 million copies. What does this tell you here?
Lastly the myth that RE7 was cheaper to develop should be debunked. The actual game might be cheaper but they also created a whole engine for it along with the focus on VR that will have likely contributed to the budget. It won't be as expensive as RE6, which was HUGE, but it is not going to be cheap either. Either way, Capcom has already squandered the potential of this franchise and this could have all been avoided with one simple move. Label the game as a spin-off instead of calling it Resident Evil VII and trying to spin it as a reboot to the franchise, because it obviously didn't work as well.
Chris who? Have you finished the game? In their desire to pursue a more realistic visual style, they also completely messed up the classic character design. The guy might as well be a fake Chris at this point.
Nothing to be sad about it imo,3.7M in a little over 6 months is not bad and broke even like 2 weeks after release.
I think is pretty good for a SP only game with a reasonable budget,little marketing and no online maintenance.
Edit: Also,Sony's paycheck for the limited PSVR exclusivity surely helped a little.
Jawmuncher
Member
I'm talking about Jacks Birthday. That was supposed to be in the main game going by the datamining.
If 6 had made "so much money" we wouldn't have got 7 as it was, Capcom didn't do that just for shits
Jawmuncher
Member
There was a lot of factors in the change for 7.
Going by interviews, in Japan 7 is a big deal for a series and they said for such an event they wanted to revisit the roots. That could just be Talk but I think there's some truth there.
Aside from that I'd argue making a game like RE7 is an easier endeavor than making something like RE6. Especially when it comes to a new engine.
Regardless we'll see how things play out. If we never see another third person action game in like the next 10 years then yeah. Capcom was fed up and just done with that style. If we do, capcom just wanted to change thins up and finally give something back to older fans who had nothing but action for like 10 years.
CD'S BAR
Member
Conjecture is not enough to label something a "myth" to be "debunked." Also you don't id that engine will be utilized for future games or licensed to third parties.
Unless we have actual figures you can't make these arguments concretely.
IcyRhythms
Member
I bet if RE2 remake is made like the REmake with better visuals it could sell very well.
Shifty
Member
Because you have to stand perfectly still and carefully aim at the enemy's moving feet in order to roundhouse kick them. Contrast that to RE6 where you can strafe and retreat while firing, or action-dive backward and attack from ground level.
Tank controls make the gameplay that much more tense, and contribute to the atmosphere that I'm talking about.
On a second playthrough, sure, RE4 becomes non-stop action because you know what's coming and understand the mechanics. On a first one though? No way.
They probably realized they aren't very good at making action-RE games after 6 because of how awful it was.
Jawmuncher
Member
Real Talk.
That game is gonna sell regardless of what style or perspective it is.
They could make it third Person and while a lot of people here would groan, I'd bet it'd sell more than RE7. The nostalgia angle it has is gonna draw a lot of people.
IcyRhythms
Member
No doubt it will sell. It says RE2 on the cover, it's gonna do well.
DarkLordMalik
Member
Ok, so I never saw this but reading it now, it sure makes a lot of sense.
RE6 was globetrotting adventure and it cost a shit ton. I can understand why Capcom decided to ditch this approach for the sequel because they obviously couldn't do another game in the same way.
Shame that they decided to go for a completely different approach here though. They could have kept third person and even decided to go for hybrid, while also retaining the multiplayer and it could have worked way better. I blame VR for it.
There are many indie games that can evoke the atmospheric horror feelings of Resident Evil 7 but nothing for the action Resident Evil games with their co-op and multiplayer.
ThatStupidLion
Gold Member
i think theres a lot of things RE7 did right and a lot it did wrong. but also, a lot that was out it's hands that would have affected it negatively.
everyone wants to speculate, but tbh no one knows how a differently designed game from RE7 would have done following RE6. seems like a drop was imminent. factor that into Capcom as a company overall and their numbers/business has been in decline. I don't think RE7 numbers are a valid way to make much of a comparison. I do think they also overestimated the audience First Person perspective would bring in.
But, really you have to look at console numbers. in september of 2012 there were 70 million PS3 units sold. in Feb of 2013 there were 76 million xbox 360s sold. so 146m total. (excluding pc numbers)
as of jan 2017 there were 26m xbox sold. by june 2017 there were ~60m ps4s sold. totalling 86m units (excluding pc numbers)....
thats about a 42% difference in available units to sell software to. and teh 6 month total software difference is ~ 29% ...so looking at these numbers I'd say RE7 is doing pretty alright, if not better than re6 and theres no real valid argument of RE6 vs. RE7
everyone wants to speculate, but tbh no one knows how a differently designed game from RE7 would have done following RE6. seems like a drop was imminent. factor that into Capcom as a company overall and their numbers/business has been in decline. I don't think RE7 numbers are a valid way to make much of a comparison. I do think they also overestimated the audience First Person perspective would bring in.
But, really you have to look at console numbers. in september of 2012 there were 70 million PS3 units sold. in Feb of 2013 there were 76 million xbox 360s sold. so 146m total. (excluding pc numbers)
as of jan 2017 there were 26m xbox sold. by june 2017 there were ~60m ps4s sold. totalling 86m units (excluding pc numbers)....
thats about a 42% difference in available units to sell software to. and teh 6 month total software difference is ~ 29% ...so looking at these numbers I'd say RE7 is doing pretty alright, if not better than re6 and theres no real valid argument of RE6 vs. RE7
GTR R35_Supra RZ
Banned
Please staph..thank god its only you're opinion that matters absolutely zero.
Fact remains, RE is back to its original roots and it's staying..only one thing left to do is...Deal with it.
How sad that RE is a horror franchise and not a buddy shooter.
What? RE has always looked the most realistic it can look for its time.