Resident Evil 6 Sales Certain to Fall Short of Target

[Karloff]

Resident Evil 6 Sales Certain to Fall Short of Target

Capcom's earnings for the year ending March 31st 2013 aren't going to be as good as forecast.

After claiming that Resident Evil 6 sales had been successful "to some degree" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120511-Western-Resident-Evil-6-Reception-Doesnt-Worry-Capcom], Capcom has since realized that "some degree" isn't going to be enough to meet targets. Capcom, in its latest financial forecast, has revised its earnings downward; sales, operating income, ordinary and net income are all expected to be less than forecast.

Resident Evil 6, Capcom's latest entrant to its zombie apocalypse franchise, launched to great fanfare and initially had excellent sales. However reviews weren't exactly gushing [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9950-Resident-Evil-6-Review], and soon sales targets were revised downward, from 7 million to 6 million units. This latest announcement indicates that even that lowball target isn't going to be met. Or, as Capcom bluntly puts it, "sales for this title are certain to fall short of the plan."

So what was the overall plan, I hear you ask? Have a look at the Capcom earnings chart seen here. [http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e121219b.html] That shows a 33.7% drop in forecasted net income for the year, putting net income - that's earnings once expenses have been taken out - at slightly below the previous year's ¥6,723 million ($80 million) final tally. Net sales are projected to be 11% less than forecast, which means that, where Capcom was expecting to see a significant sales bump over the previous financial year, instead actual sales are probably going to be broadly the same as before, with perhaps a modest increase over the 82,065 units moved in the 2012 financial year. Net income per share is also projected to be less in 2013 than it was in 2012.

All in all, not a stellar year for Capcom, as the title it described as "dramatic horror" falls short - though perhaps not dramatically short - of its sales targets.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-19-capcom-delays-monster-hunter-4-says-resident-evil-6-sales-certain-to-fall-short-of-the-plan]


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[ohnoitsabear]

So wait, a mediocre game didn't sell terribly well? I am in complete shock!

 

[Siege_TF]

Someone decided to include the godawful Lost Planet 2 splitscreen instead of the awesome Resident Evil 5 screen. Whoever this was needs to be fired, or beaten with a stick. They lost my sale and god knows how many others'.

 

[Smokescreen]

Good. Perhaps next time they won't make RE:Zombiepuncher and make something that resembles a fun game.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Capcom is retarded. They had a good thing going with Resident Evil 4. And they decided to change the working formula that everybody loved, in order to try to attract the casual military shooter crowd. They are doing something similar with the new DMC. Instead of sticking to what the hardcore fans want they are creating some kind of parallel universe that just so happens to look like it was inspired by fuckin' Twilight. They are constantly being criticized for their use of on-disc DLC and announcements of DLC before the game is out. It's actually costing them sales, and they insist on doing it over and over again. They don't know when to stick to familiar things and when to innovate. They are doing everything wrong. They keep repeating the same mistakes and when they actually do something right, they can't wait to ruin it. I've never seen a dumber company.

 

[Piorn]

Should have done more tie-ins with Mountain Dew and Micheal Bay.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

I'm sure a some of us are waiting for them to put out some sort of altered version and get it then. They do it with every game now, SSF Super Arcade Hyper, Resident Evil 5 Marshmallow Crusade Edition, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Ultimate Frisbee Ediiton and Street Fighter X Tekken Fifty Extras Dollars of DLC featuring Gamebreaking Bugs and Horrible Balance.

That last one hurts the most because I worry it would weaken Namco's resolve to make the vastly superior Tekken X Street Fighter that still hasn't been made.

 

[badmunky64]

Nothing speaking louder than our wallets. Hopefully Capcom will listen this time and make 7 more like 4 or at least 5.

Less quick time events, no more punching, better item management, either make an un-convoluted plot or just turn up the bad writing and characters up to 11, get rid of the F***ing guns and cover system, design the campaign around single player where a 2nd guy can support, but uses your stash of ammo or something.

Do at least 3 of these, and I may not trade in Resi 7 with-in a week like a did with 6.

 

[badmunky64]

Capcom is retarded. They had a good thing going with Resident Evil 4. And they decided to change the working formula that everybody loved, in order to try to attract the casual military shooter crowd. They are doing something similar with the new DMC. Instead of sticking to what the hardcore fans want they are creating some kind of parallel universe that just so happens to look like it was inspired by fuckin' Twilight. They are constantly being criticized for their use of on-disc DLC and announcements of DLC before the game is out. It's actually costing them sales, and they insist on doing it over and over again. They don't know when to stick to familiar things and when to innovate. They are doing everything wrong. They keep repeating the same mistakes and when they actually do something right, they can't wait to ruin it. I've never seen a dumber company.

It's starting to looking like Resi 4 was lightning in a bottle. That or capcom started thinking their shit smelt good and got stupid. They could have at least bought back that creepy salesman from 4! Those blue torch lights were like a beacon of hope and a chance to breathe.

also, after playing my friends copy of DMC 4, I'm not holding my breathe.

 

[Full]

7 million units? There's you're problem, throw less at the graphics then aim lower. It just makes me feel for Visceral next year.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Hopefully Capcom will listen this time and make 7 more like 4 or at least 5.

-

no more punching

Hey man, what's wrong with the melee attacks?

It's starting to looking like Resi 4 was lightning in a bottle. That or capcom started thinking their shit smelt good and got stupid.

Who remembers all those times that Resident Evil 4 was delayed and development restarted from square 1? The reason for that: Shinji Mikami. I think Shinji Mikami is the sole reason why RE4 was so great. And as soon as he stopped directing the series, well just look what happened.

also, after playing my friends copy of DMC 4, I'm not holding my breathe.

What do you mean?

 

[Kekkonen1]

I think one of the reasons Resident Evil 4 was so good (despite it just being amazingly fun to play) was that it was an interesting stand-alone story. I mean the main RE-story has by this point become so ridiculously convoluted and silly that none but the most hard-core fans even care. Its like the movie franchise and the game franchise is competing in making the story more and more silly by each installment. Compared to that Leons adventures in the spanish countryside felt really fresh and interesting, despite chibi-Napoleon.

Also, get rid of the bloody forced co-op!

 

[Trishbot]

Who remembers all those times that Resident Evil 4 was delayed and development restarted from square 1? The reason for that: Shinji Mikami. I think Shinji Mikami is the sole reason why RE4 was so great. And as soon as he stopped directing the series, well just look what happened.

Yeah, Shinji Mikami was brilliant. He did the exact same thing with RE2, scrapping the nearly complete version because he knew the game needed to be better than it was. The current Capcom would just release anything, no matter the quality, and stamp the Resident Evil brand name on it (*cough* Operation Raccoon City *cough*).

Capcom in general, like stated in a post above, is a terrible company solely for the reason that they have no bloody idea what they're doing. They create massively popular, beloved, critically acclaimed games like RE4... and then promptly toss all those good ideas out while clinging incessantly to ideas everyone and their dog hates (on-disc DLC, online passes, charging for basic features like friendly fire, colors, endings, difficulty modes...).

The Capcom of today is not the Capcom we used to know. Apart from their hilariously awful treatment of Mega Man, they've done a great deal to diminish the quality of their brands and selectively ignore the rich history they have.

This is a Capcom that has forgotten it has games like Breathe of Fire, Power Stone, Dino Crisis, Onimusha, Mega Man Legends, Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7, God Hand, Captain Commando, Strider, Maximo, Gargoyle's Quest, Demon's Crest, Ghosts N' Goblins, Dark Void, P.N. 03, Puzzle Fighter, Rival Schools, Final Fight, Chaos Legion, and Okami. This is a Capcom that has abandoned the very genre that Resident Evil popularized while announcing superior, non-compatible versions of their fighting games mere MONTHS after suckering people into buying the original (including expensive "collector's editions"). This is a Capcom that tried hard to keep games like Lost Planet and Dead Rising from happening, got tricked by the director into funding, and then realized they could milk those new franchises dry as well in a few short years.

Resident Evil was once one of my favorite game franchise. I played the Gamecube Remake for Halloween this year and, holy cow, it's SUCH an incredible game, with atmosphere, tension, pacing, puzzles, and exploration almost unrivaled in its genre. It's sad to see how far the franchise has fallen since then, and Capcom is solely to blame for trying to chase after the mindless success of Call of Duty and Gears of War at the expense of what Resident Evil did so very well.

 

[Beautiful End]

No Megaman Legends, no money for you, Capcom!

[sub]Yeah, I'm still not over it...[/sub]

OT: Well, what did they expect? The game sucks; of course it's not gonna meet its goals. I shouldn't even have to list out what's wrong with the game and what they could have done better. I think we all know by now, including Capcom. Sheesh.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Interstingly, I was just doing some reseach into Capcom stock last night, here is the 5-year snapshot:

High price: May '08 - 3,640 yen/share
Low Price: Nov '10 - 1,196 yen/share
Current Stock price (last evening) 1,484 yen/share

All the major Japanese publishers took hits from the '08 collapse and the Tsunami, but Sega, Konami, and Namco Bandai have all regained at least half of their stock value lost during the crisis. The only Japanese publisher I could find performing worse was SquareEnix, losing more than 3/4 of their stock value and recovering only pennies to date. As you can see, Capcom has recovered about 300 yen per share, whereas Konami has recovered more than 600 yen per share, despite having roughly equal stock prices before '08.

 

[Madara XIII]

Someone decided to include the godawful Lost Planet 2 splitscreen instead of the awesome Resident Evil 5 screen. Whoever this was needs to be fired, or beaten with a stick. They lost my sale and god knows how many others'.

I think you make an excellent point with this.
On a side note

Here's my reaction to CAPCOM sucking it up on sales


<youtube=P3ALwKeSEYs>

 

[Salad Is Murder]

and no fuck was and could be given by the pc crowd...

Man, you guys just cannot resist this crap can you? Pathetic.