SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Resident Evil needs to be more like Call of Duty

Posted: Mar 23 2012 01:40 pm

Well, this is just sad.

Really seems like a lot of Japanese developers are just throwing in the towel now. Apparently they claim there isn't a market for survival-horror anymore.

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/03/22/resident-evil-revelations-producer-says-survival-horror-doesnt-sell-resident-evil-needs-more-action/

mynintendonews wrote:

"RE4 started in that direction, and RE5 kept going in that direction. I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further. And that’s exactly one of the reasons that Revelations is the way it is.”

This trend may not continue in the upcoming Resident Evil 6, with which Kawata is not involved, but he still believes the series could benefit by following the example of best-sellers like Call of Duty.

"Looking at the marketing data, the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell. A ‘survival horror’ Resident Evil doesn’t seem like it’d be able to sell those kind of numbers."

Tell that to games like Dead Space, which sell pretty well. Despite their action elements, they are still pretty survival horror, particularly DS1.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 01:44 pm

You just made Cam cry.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I don't blame them for wanting to sell more games, but people who use the argument "Japan still cares about game design and not money" need to be slapped. They all care about money, it's just taking them a while to catch up.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 01:49 pm

Resident Evil should be more like Angry Birds.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 01:49 pm

JoshWoodzy wrote:

I don't blame them for wanting to sell more games, but people who use the argument "Japan still cares about game design and not money" need to be slapped. They all care about money, it's just taking them a while to catch up.

Pretty much, Japan has been behind the gaming 8-ball for a while now in a number of areas.

sidewaydriver wrote:

Resident Evil should be more like Angry Birds.

And oh my god, the hype and press I have been reading about that new Angry Birds in space "sequel" has been driving me fucking crazy, arrrgh! Lame.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I still think Japan has the most creative developers around, don't get me wrong. They just look at how much money American devs are making with shit games and go "Ooo, we make less thinky games and more shooty games, we make more yen. OKAY THEN". And that's depressing.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 01:58 pm

Overall, they still make some creative games.

But they have been coasting for a while. They are in need of some sort of gaming Renascence.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 02:00 pm

Still, I think the RE Remake and RE0 both broke a million in sales. Isn't that decent? That's pretty damn good considering it was on the Gamecube. Even back then the gameplay was considered ancient.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 02:07 pm

sidewaydriver wrote:

Still, I think the RE Remake and RE0 both broke a million in sales. Isn't that decent? That's pretty damn good considering it was on the Gamecube. Even back then the gameplay was considered ancient.

Yea, until they see shit like Call of Duty: MW2 sell fucking 4.7 million units within it's first 24 hours of release.

Not even sure how many it's sold since then, but I know it' broken the $1 billion mark.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 02:13 pm

Let's all pitch in and find a PS1 or PS2 developers kit, learn how to use it, then we can make all the awesome RE games we want, along with other series that have turned to shit.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

People always say Japanese games are much more creative than the US, but it's kind of hard to ignore the Devil May Cry, RE4, and Final Fantasy/Tactics clones. US developers get just as bad (and arguably worse), but pain the whole picture. At this point, both countries are basically at the same level in terms of big and small developers having different ideas, it's just that our bigs get more money than their bigs. Japan is just adjusting to the fact that the US is now the major gaming marketplace. It used to be that Japan was the powerhouse, and they had to cater to that market, but now if they want to maximize profits, they need to find a way to appeal to the US as well.

And to be fair, we could learn a lot from the Japanese handheld market as well. They manage to release a wide variety of interesting games that sell in both countries, while the US kind of lags. I have about ten games for my DS, and only one of them is from an American developer.

I feel like they're going to get burned if they ramp up and try to copycat too much. Call of Duty has only been a big hitter for about four years, and my guess is that it's going to go Guitar Hero within the next two. Following trends only lasts as long as the trend does, and followers rarely make as big of an impact as the originators/dominators.

I don't think it's a problem with culture or creativity. I've read a few essays by developers who go back and forth from the US and Japan, and the biggest criticism that they have of Japanese companies is lack of business streamlining, most prevalently in terms of game engines. When they have to constantly make/update new engines, they take on almost a new year of development to every cycle, they lose money and man hours that could be spent on building, marketing, and refining their games. Capcom and Konami both caught on to this recently, and while Capcom has seen success with having a main engine for their major games (RE5, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Vanquish), Konami is trying to play catch-up by streamlining its development cycles.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 03:04 pm

/me teabags a zombie corpse.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 04:13 pm

I think they are just seeing that the new Resident Evil games don't appeal much to the older fans because they've stepped away from survival horror to become more and more like action games. There are a million better action games out there, even ones with actual zombies, and Resident Evil 5 was just a cheap Gears of War ripoff from what I played of it before shutting the system off disgusted and selling the game back to Gamestop. The series has really lost the thing that made me like it in the first place, certainly won't be buying 6 brand new. If they wanted to win me back they should make it more like Dead Space, survival-horror AND action. That game is fun as hell and really gets me jumping at every little sound even ones in the house unrelated to the game at all, much like the old RE games did.

I was kind of excited for the game they just released because it looked like it was heading back to the roots of the series, but all I've heard about it so far is that it blows. I'll probably pick it up when it drops 20 bucks permanently or snag it if it goes on sale soon to make my own opinion.

Don't mind a series evolving to fit changing times but stepping completely away from what made the series great in the first place is a mistake, in my opinion.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 04:15 pm

That's so lame. They never heard of a thing called diversity, have they? It's the same thing with the God Of War clones. It's just, take one popular (it doesn't even have to be good) game concept and reproduce it over and over. And people don't even really care, they just jerk off to the oh so great graphics.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 04:15 pm

sidewaydriver wrote:

Let's all pitch in and find a PS1 or PS2 developers kit, learn how to use it, then we can make all the awesome RE games we want, along with other series that have turned to shit.

I have the Net Yaroze for North America, which is the development kit for the PS1. My dad bought it years ago and messed around with it a bit, making a few basic games. I got it when he died in 2004. Right now it is just sitting in storage because I really don't have any programming skills.

I suppose if I could get together with someone who knew how to code well enough I would consider breaking it out and making games.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 08:12 pm

You can't cater to Call of Duty gamers, because they're not gamers. A significant portion of Call of Duty gamers play Call of Duty and nothing but Call of Duty. You can make Resident Evil play like Call of Duty, but it won't sell any better. You know why? Because it's not actually Call of Duty.

And guys, this is Capcom. Capcom is a really fucking shitty company.

Japanese companies do still make great games. The ones who make the best games are companies like Atlus, Natsume, Idea Factory, Xseed and NIS, who give no fucks if you buy their games or not, because someone will.

Posted: Mar 23 2012 10:01 pm

Syd, it's true that Capcom is currently run by godless idiots, but I wouldn't call it really fucking shitty unless they announce, in detail, Mega Man 11 and subsequently cancel it.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Syd Lexia wrote:

You can't cater to Call of Duty gamers, because they're not gamers. A significant portion of Call of Duty gamers play Call of Duty and nothing but Call of Duty. You can make Resident Evil play like Call of Duty, but it won't sell any better. You know why? Because it's not actually Call of Duty.

I agree to an extent, but there is the factor of gamers who can only get one or two games per year, and they want to try to compete for that customer.

And why the hell does everyone hate Capcom so much?

Posted: Mar 24 2012 12:17 am

Mostly because of the way they've been treating Mega Man lately. Mostly.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

So they decided that they didn't want to just hash out more half-assed Mega Man games every year, and pull the projects so they can put more effort into the brand. Assholes.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

jprime doesn't speak for everyone, he's incorrect as to why Capcom has been sucking it up lately.

Joined: Feb 16 2010 Location: Texas Posts: 329

Fuck Capcom. Release MvC3 after years, to not support it in the least, release a fucking sequel half a year later, and blame not doing anything with the original on nature. Fuck them for hyping Mega Man games and then cancelling them. Fuck their DLC. Fuck them for not localizing Ace Attorney Investigations 2 yet (probably not their fault but fuck them).

Posted: Mar 24 2012 03:00 am

1. My brain just exploded all over my laptop after reading the line "the series could benefit by following the example of best-sellers like Call of Duty." I mean, seriously? That's like saying a movie could benefit from being more like the Transformers or Twilight movies. And anyway, why are they comparing a survival horror series to a generic first person shooter series? I could see a comparison to a third-person shooter or even an FPS like the F.E.A.R. games, but still.

2. As everyone else has stated, the fact that the genre even still exists means there's still a viable market for survival horror. If they make RE6 even more action-y, Dead Space may become my new second-favorite survival horror series.

3.

Syd Lexia wrote:

You can't cater to Call of Duty gamers, because they're not gamers. A significant portion of Call of Duty gamers play Call of Duty and nothing but Call of Duty. You can make Resident Evil play like Call of Duty, but it won't sell any better. You know why? Because it's not actually Call of Duty.

Couldn'tve said it better myself.

4. As everyone in the chat knows, I've been whining for years now about how the glory days of Resident Evil (the first game through Code: Veronica) need to make a return, and though I haven't played Revelations, it seems like the series is going in the exact opposite direction. Crying

Posted: Mar 24 2012 03:03 am

This whole idea of making games more like call of duty is a moronic one. The market already seems pretty flooded with call of duty wannabees. People don't want to buy copy cat games cause the main reason to buy a game like COD is to play it with other people. Consumers are going to buy what they believe other people are buying when it comes to such games. I am not going to risk my utility by purchasing a game where the main source of that utility could potentially be lower. Obviously Capcom isn't going to release a straight clone of Call of Duty and call it a Resident Evil game, but it seems to me that product differentiation is the best way to capture more of the market. Rather than trying to piggy back or steal another genres share of the market they should work to make their games more unique so they can secure a stable following. My feelings on this are mostly due to the fact that Call of Duty seems like a series that is in an unstable bubble just waiting to burst. You can only spit out games so quickly for so long before people will get tired of buying them.

Posted: Mar 24 2012 08:38 am

Actually, Revelations seems to have taken a step back in time (and not just for taking a good bit of time on a boat). There are some moments that generally spooked me and had me hoping I'd fine ammo soon. Then again, I might just be starved for RE games having not played any after RE 4, until Revelations.