Resident Evil 7 Sells 3.5 Million Copies, but Misses Sales Targets

[ffronw]

Resident Evil 7 Sells 3.5 Million Copies, but Misses Sales Targets

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1378/1378294.jpgCapcom's financial results show that Resident Evil 7 has sold 3.5 million units since it launch in late January.

Capcom said back when shipping 2.5 million copies [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/116995-Resident-Evil-7-Review] in its first week, but eventually fell short of that goal by 500,000 copies, Capcom announced today.

In its fiscal-year-end financial report, the company announced that RE7 has sold 3.5 million units as of March 31, and that it expects sales to continue to grow due to both DLC and the fact that games in the series tend to sell well in the long run.

Our Liz Finnegan said [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/169373-Resident-Evil-7-Review] that, "Resident Evil 7 is a welcome change of pace for a once great franchise that has been on a downward spiral since the release of Resident Evil 4." Given that, it's not surprising that the game has sold well, even if it missed Capcom's optimistic targets.

You can dig into Capcom's end-of-year financials here [http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/result.html], if you're into that sort of thing.

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[CaitSeith]

A millions-selling AAA game doesn't reach its overambitious goal? Picture me surprised. /s

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

A millions-selling AAA game doesn't reach its overambitious goal? Picture me surprised. /s

To be fair, January was a stupid time to release the game. Like, right after Christmas? Come on.

The game will reach its sales goal soon enough. They fell short by 500K which for the first good RE game since 4, isn't that bad.

 

[Chaosian]

Yeah, and Dead Space 3 was supposed to sell 5 million.
Expectations expectations.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They should count their blessings. It's a first person horror game. If it was the usual third person Resident Evil it might have sold better. But games like this one are not that hard to find these days and they usually sell for $20-30. How the fuck did they not know that?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Reminds me of how Tomb Raider 2013 was a failure while simultaneously being the best selling game in the series. Such is a problem with extreme expectations.

I mean, 3 million isn't a massive goal, but it also doesn't make a lot of sense to assume a sequel in a long-running series that lost a fair bit of its fanbase (and was not very well received critically) in the last game would sell just as well as that base-breaking game.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

"We missed our sales target? Obviously good games don't sell well! Let's make more shit games!"

Every. Time.

 

[BarkBarker]

Considering the type of game it is, the sales seem pretty damn good.

 

[Bedinsis]

They aimed for 4 million, but reached 3.5 million?

That's not too shabby.

Are there any major horror games coming this year? If there isn't they ought to get decent lifetime sales, though those sales will be after the target date.

Additionally, the Company has been promoting the establishment of a work-life balance through child-rearing
support and other initiatives, empowering employees to pursue both their career and childrearing in order to
secure and utilize superior talent. As a part of this endeavor, the Company opened onsite childcare facilities in
April 2017.

Capcom is running a kindergarten for their employees' children?

 

[Borty The Bort]

They aimed for 4 million, but reached 3.5 million?

That's not too shabby.

Are there any major horror games coming this year? If there isn't they ought to get decent lifetime sales, though those sales will be after the target date.

Additionally, the Company has been promoting the establishment of a work-life balance through child-rearing
support and other initiatives, empowering employees to pursue both their career and childrearing in order to
secure and utilize superior talent. As a part of this endeavor, the Company opened onsite childcare facilities in
April 2017.

Capcom is running a kindergarten for their employees' children?

I mean, why not? Seems fairly sound to me, stops employees losing their minds about their child getting abused by uncaring takers, 'cause it's right out their window.

 

[Bedinsis]

They aimed for 4 million, but reached 3.5 million?

That's not too shabby.

Are there any major horror games coming this year? If there isn't they ought to get decent lifetime sales, though those sales will be after the target date.

Additionally, the Company has been promoting the establishment of a work-life balance through child-rearing
support and other initiatives, empowering employees to pursue both their career and childrearing in order to
secure and utilize superior talent. As a part of this endeavor, the Company opened onsite childcare facilities in
April 2017.

Capcom is running a kindergarten for their employees' children?

I mean, why not? Seems fairly sound to me, stops employees losing their minds about their child getting abused by uncaring takers, 'cause it's right out their window.

My initial thought would be that they would subsidize the cost and/or the available spots at kindergartens, not that they would start their own.

Although... I have heard that in Japan the rule is that once the first child is born the career of the mother i basically over. This has led to a situation where kindergarten spots are ridiculously expensive in Tokyo. While Capcom is based in Osaka, it would not surprise me if the situation is similar, and onsite childcare facilities might be less expensive than subsidizing kindergarten costs/spots. That or the reason you brought up.

 

[Metalrocks]

what a surprise. but they should be happy that it sold already so much. also they should consider how many have complained about how previous titles for not being horror too much. so of course people are skeptical or even lost interest that the next installment may suck or disappoint.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

A millions-selling AAA game doesn't reach its overambitious goal? Picture me surprised. /s

It was hardly overambitious. 5&6 did more in the same timeframe. But, they are satisfied with it, and it has broken even back in February. 6 specifically was a far bigger miss than 7 even. Their original goal was 7 million within its first quarter for that, which they had to modify to 5 million close to launch, and it still didn't manage achieve it. That was Capcom overestimating the adjustment to their gross overestimation. It's hilarious.

Seems like 7 was a more conservative production overall.

In good news, Dead Rising 4 flopped like a hot sack of shit. They projected 2 mill, it didn't even reach 1 million.

And in weird news, the RE6 port on Xbone/PS4 sold over a million copies. Guess there's been a drought in big budget coop third-person shooters at the time, so it filled that niche well at its budget price. The game is trash, but there's a looooot of stuff there for people who want to play some shit with buddies.

I will say with RE6 it is... oddly fun when playing co-op. It's a fucking dumpsterfire of a game, sure, but playing it with friends it's almost like doing your own personal episode of Mystery Science Theatre, there's just so many things to riff on.

...granted I also bought it when it was heavily discounted (I think it's been >60% off on the PSN numerous times), so I'm wondering if those million copies weren't just sold at a heavy loss or something.

 

[FalloutJack]

"Goal set too high by company whose previous games produced a decidedly lukewarm response."

Oooh, big shocker there. Capcom, you have a long way to go in credibility before you can expect the numbers you are shooting for.

 

[Brewin]

I look at it this way,

The last few main numbered Resident Evil releases (5 and 6) were not exactly incredibly well received games, and sold considerably above the 4 million target set for Resident Evil 7

Given Resident Evil 7 was considered a step up in quality and had a unique selling hook for the series, its not wildly unreasonable for Capcom to have expected it to at least have met the sales of 5 or 6. Setting the target BELOW seems almost conservative for them

That being said considering how heavily focused the game was toward VR, hitting 4 million sales seems unprecedentedly and unjustifiably high. Has any other VR focused game sold near even a million copies?

So I can see where both sides are coming from.