Capcom: Our Resident Evil Gamer Fanbase Is Too Old

[otakon17]

Capcom, you are blaming the people that MADE YOU WHAT YOU ARE TODAY for YOUR failings? ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOURSELVES?

1. Make a PROPER Resident Evil game. Take it back to 4 if you don't want to go too far back but dammit it's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A STRAIGHT UP SHOOTER!
2. MAKE A PROPER BREATH OF FIRE GAME! Your flagship RPG is sinking, WHY!? Hell make a proper BoF HD remake and put it on the 3DS. It would probably sell like hotcakes.
3. PORT MONSTER HUNTER TO THE POPULAR WESTERN SYSTEMS. Stop letting the portables just have it dammit.
4. Make a proper Dragon's Dogma sequel that let's us explore the rest of Gransys AND proper multiplayer with real life people instead of brain-dead pawns.
5. If all else fails, sell everything to Nintendo.(kind of a joke that last one)

Please don't die like this Capcom, it would be a shame.

Uh, that's kind of the problem; the fact of the matter is that you can't expect your audience to stay on. The comics industry learned that the hard way by constantly catering to a shrinking demographic. As for your points, let's see here:

1. Uh, 6 WAS a proper RE game. Once the series dropped all pretenses of being a horror series they were better off for it. Being a shooter wasn't the problem. It was that it wasn't as tightly designed as 4 or 5.

2. And then watch the game sell NOTHING.

3. MH4 is on the 3DS. How the HELL is that not a popular systems.

4. They might get around to that

5. And not a very good joke.

You have no idea what a proper Resident Evil game is then on point one. On point 2, Bravely Default is selling VERY well for all purposes being a Final Fantasy reboot. Point 3, it's on PORTABLE systems mostly and the Wii, NOT on the biggest consoles in the West. 4, yeah and 5 yeah I know it was a bad joke but last I heard they have 150 million left in the coffers to hold them over till the end of the financial season so I have no idea if they're gonna go under or not.

 

[Aesir23]

This is probably going to earn me a lot of flak but I admit that I get a bit annoyed when I see all of the cries for a return to the original formula of RE.

Sure, I would love a return to the more tense atmosphere of the old RE games but at the same time, I have come to appreciate the controls of the post-RE3 titles. The controls of the earlier titles just frustrated me to hell and back, primarily when it came to actually moving your character. So I'd probably prefer if they went back to something similar to RE4 or, more recently, RE: Revelations.

I'm not saying the people who want a return to the old formula don't have a point, something I admitted to just above. The main thing I'm frustrated with is that so many seem to want it exactly as it was with the pre-RE4 titles without even the most minor of differences. If they didn't make some things different outside of the graphics, then we'd just be seeing the same thing again and again.

We'd see the RE version of Call of Duty where people would then be complaining about how there is no innovation.

Perhaps I'm just misinterpreting it but that's how it comes across a lot of the time so someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Easton Dark]

Sure, I would love a return to the more tense atmosphere of the old RE games but at the same time, I have come to appreciate the controls of the post-RE3 titles. The controls of the earlier titles just frustrated me to hell and back, primarily when it came to actually moving your character. So I'd probably prefer if they went back to something similar to RE4 or, more recently, RE: Revelations.

But RE4 and up controls are just tank controls like the previous games with an over-the-shoulder camera and requiring precise aim. It's just as awkward to move as it was previously.

I wish capcom realized that there are more 18 year olds and up now than there were in 1996, and definitely many more that are into games, so that if they recaptured what made RE great almost two decades ago, it'd be an even bigger success, and it would cost peanuts compared to RE6, plus the old fans would come back as well.

Oh well, RE2 still exists as the best one.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I don't think Capcom get that a franchise "brand" is just another tool. It can be used for good or for evil. More than that, a brand can be poisoned; if one "Resident Evil" game isn't very good, a lot of people might remember and avoid the next "Resident Evil" game, but might buy the same game without the name on it.

It seems like Capcom don't have confidence in their product any more, doesn't it? RE:6's only such point was the strong brand name behind it, which was enough to get it five million sales. Unfortunately it's "poisoned the well" for the next game. Even if that game happens to be much better (which it hopefully will be). It did this by NOT coming up with a unique vision - instead it tried to be all things to all people, and as a result, had no identity of its own.

The basics of selling a videogame are the same as any other product:

- Come up with a vision for a product with a unique selling point.
- Market that unique selling point to the audience who you think are most likely to buy the product as a result.

If anything, being part of a franchise should make this process EASIER, not harder: you've got the name and the theme, you're halfway there already! But a unique selling point that's a "brand" only works if previous iterations haven't diluted its value. A lot of people disliked RE:6 and may not buy RE:7 as a result, regardless of the reviews (after all, RE:6 had enough bad reviews, and it didn't stop people from buying it.)

 

[Aesir23]

Sure, I would love a return to the more tense atmosphere of the old RE games but at the same time, I have come to appreciate the controls of the post-RE3 titles. The controls of the earlier titles just frustrated me to hell and back, primarily when it came to actually moving your character. So I'd probably prefer if they went back to something similar to RE4 or, more recently, RE: Revelations.

But RE4 and up controls are just tank controls like the previous games with an over-the-shoulder camera and requiring precise aim. It's just as awkward to move as it was previously.

I wish capcom realized that there are more 18 year olds and up now than there were in 1996, and definitely many more that are into games, so that if they recaptured what made RE great almost two decades ago, it'd be an even bigger success, and it would cost peanuts compared to RE6, plus the old fans would come back as well.

Oh well, RE2 still exists as the best one.

I just always found the controls of the post-RE3 games to be much easier to deal with, probably because of the perspective itself. Perhaps I just lacked the dexterity at the time but with the control style of the earlier games I would struggle just to navigate a room efficiently. Even more so when I was under pressure.

 

[Mr. Q]

Capcom, if you're gonna run a company with that kind of half-ass logic, I might as well take you out back and put two deer slugs in the back of your head.

The reason why RE6 failed is because you tried reaching out to the "spunkgargleweewee" fans who barely give half a rat's ass about other properties that are not Call of Duty or Battlefield. I don't care if you're gonna do another sequel or reboot the franchise, but, Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, get this series back to its survival horror roots. Either learn from what made RE4 popular (and not just gloss over the details) or learn how to do proper survival horror (might wanna take notes from Amnesia: The Dark Decent and Outlast). You cannot spend your time trying to chase an audience that is already taken care of. Focus on winning back your fan base, make a damn good product, and let word of mouth take care of the rest.

You cannot afford to fuck up anymore, Capcom! Failure is no longer an option in this day and age!

THQ is already dead and buried. EA has one foot in the grave judging from their past actions. Do you really want your company to suffer the same fate?

 

[1337mokro]

Our gaming audience is too old to enjoy the braindead action games we want to make that appeal to nobody but focus groups tell us would sell like Call of Duty.

Capcom... you are dying. Literally. Your staff is disgruntled, your greatest talents have all but left you behind and I have not bought one of your games in ages. Even the street fighters I eventually dropped and left in the dust. Your sales are constantly failing to meet requirements, not estimates, I mean requirements to be profitable and now you want to tick off your most loyal fanbase?

Are you insane? Does your CEO have a death wish? Is he trying to pull a debt scheme where he just piles on debt and then hopes the company goes bankrupt so he can bail with a few illegal millions in his offshore account?

The problem in short is you. You do not understand what you are, what your games should be and for who your should be making those games.

 

[weirdee]

uh

the issue is that you changed the game to crap to attempt to attract the younger audience but instead alienated people who would have been interested in the series, since you decided that the main reason resident 4 was successful was because you bought into the current trends blindly without even considering why the individual changes were actually fun

based on focus testing targeted at groups that will never actually be interested in buying this game when they have other games that do a better job because they were designed to be that way

frankly it's ridiculous especially after the 3ds game was actually successful, and yet nothing was learned from it

 

[kannibus]

I smell shitty franchise reboot being retargeted for "younger, hipper crowd" (we can still use those words, right?). There is a couple of questions though:

1) How big will Jill Valentine's boobs have to be for this remake?
2) Chris Redfield is already a refrigerator with arms and legs, what home appliance will he emulate next? HDTV?
3) When will Umbrella get the message and give up on biological weapons and concentrate on the much easier to control legions of killer robots?
4) How big will Rebecca Chambers' boobs have to be for this remake?
5) Will they get the lucrative Pepsi sponsorship?
6) When will they be acquired by Disney?
7) Which character will be go for the mandatory recast as African American?
8) How big will Claire Redfield's boobs have to be for this remake?

Answer these questions please CAPCOM.

While I don't represent Capcom in any way, I think I can answer these:

1, 4, 8: Big enough to have a mathematically significant gravitational field. Remember Ivy from Soulcaliber? too small, too static.

2: Pitcher blender, obviously. Unless they're aiming to appeal more to women, then a ceiling fan.

3: They already have, but were disappointed by the robots' lack of zombification of its victims. They're currently in a heated legal battle with Aperture Science over patent rights. (Keep your eyes open for everyone's favorite Ace Attorney to get involved, with his latest DLC crossover campaign!)

5: Sadly, they're already locked into a parasitic Pepsi contract. They're attempting to trade it for the lucrative one, but, as demonstrated in their RE:6 sales estimates, they are bad at setting quotas. (Yet another wacky adventure for everyone's favorite Ace Attorney? *wink*) (*...actually, no. This is evolving into the next Ghouls and Goblins franchise revival, where the player must rescue Lady Capcorn by defeating the demonic plague-cloud, Pepsire... with a rocket launcher.)

6: Highly unlikely. However, most of the teams responsible for previous Disney-licensed games have already been incorporated into Disney Interactive... may whatever god they believe in have mercy on their souls.

7: Ada Wong, obviously. You didn't think they'd "blackface" any of the white characters, did you? Haha! casual racism...
Actually, given the current situation, Ashley Graham might be a contender... so long as they hit the release window in 2014.

PS: Capcom has proved their ability to reboot a franchise with DMC. Despite its being marginally offensive to fans of the series (albeit slightly less offensive than Devil May Cry 2), DMC was both critically acclaimed and well-received by the community-at-large, or as assholes like to call them, "filthy casuals".

You Sir, have earned a golf clap and are now in the running to win teh internets.

 

[vagabondwillsmile]

The gamers "outgrew" the original RE format?

Is that why Pokemon, a game that was birthed around the same time period nearly 15 years ago, continues to sell so well to both old fans AND new fans?

Capcom... we need to talk. Resident Evil was once king of the survival horror genre, a trend setter... rather than a trend follower, embarrassingly copying Gears of War, Uncharted, God of War, Call of Duty and other market trends to diminishing results.

You won't win the Call of Duty crowd. They already have Call of Duty. Win the Resident Evil crowd. That's what Resident Evil was best at.

The people who played Resident Evil 15 years ago tended to be older than those that played pokemon. Resident evil was aimed at the 18s and over making the youngest to about 35. There are plenty of over 35 year old gamers, I am one myself, but as a general rule we don't have the time to play as many games as we once did because of work and family. There is also far greater competition in the zombie market now where as pokemon has very few competitors.

It's hard to say whom they ought to cater, when all of our gaming experiences and intrests are unique in their own ways. For me, among my Mates in school - we played our first RE game around 11 to 14 years of age. And we liked Pokemon too. We got our healthy frights from one, and our cute fun fix from Resident Evil. Badum Tissshhh! Haha Now that we are grown, most of us have lost intrest in Pokemon, I believe, but still like a good scare. A GOOD scare. It doesn't how many replays I give RE 4, the regenerators still terrify me. Everytime I hear that sound I get butterflies in my stomach and the hair on my neck stands up.

But anyway, I don't understand Capcom's marketing strategy. Us adults aren't a bad market to target for scares. We have more income to give to Capcom than a child. And we are loyal dedicated customers (when the offering is worthy). I certainly can understand the need to attract new audiences; but that doesn't mean they have to mimmick something else to be successful. I mean, we never saw anything like the first RE before it came out and we loved it. Maybe if they do expose themselves in fashion magazines and the like, they will get a new huge female audience that loves a good scare and tension in a game every bit as much as their traditional "core" audience primarily of us males. I mean, why not - the more the merrier! But what I fear is that they will once again water-down, dumb-down, and action-up the property to try to grab market share from consumers that are already getting what they want from ip's they already know to provide it. I certainly don't want to be that guy that says, "Only pay attention to me" or "Who needs a new audience?" or anything. Just- there is no need for the games to not stay true to what they are in order to be succesful. At this point, we can't look at ten minutes of RE 6 without comparing it to five other games that do the action schtick better.

After hearing the news of BOF 6 being reduced to a mobile flash game of all things I cringe at the thought of what Capcom is capable of with RE now. Maybe a new hit Facebook app called Resident Evil: Brain Munch Saga, breaking records with an historic assortment of cash grab micro transactions and dlc.

 

[Metalrocks]

I would give my first born for HD remakes of Res Evil 1,2,Nem,CodeV.

Uhm, the first RE has already been remade:


Ain't exactly HD, but close enough. Also, Capcom considers it a commercial failure and therefore isn't really fond of making more...

OT: Breaking news, RE started in the 90's, many gamers grew up with these games. How about aiming new titles at this demographic and coming up with a new IP every now and then?

it mainly failed because they released it only for the gamecube. if they would have released on every platform and even for the pc, it would have been better because i know many people who wanted to get this game (including me) but no one wanted to get a gamecube just for this game.

the same with PN03. i was able to get it for pc, which wasnt really the right way i did. but i was able to play and i love this game.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Sigh, with the success of Amnesia and the wide spread of Slender across the internet, it is time they moved back to actually making survival horror games.

If your fans are old, go old school and do it well. That will draw in the old crowd and get some new people to also take a peek (if they hear it is good and old school).

 

[Dark Knifer]

I smell it on the wind. The stench of death. Of things that should not be. Of gigantic piles of money being not enough to tie the monsters over as they wanted more. They always want more.

Gentlemen, I smell a reboot on the winds.

 

[Another]

Wait... We grew out of it and they want to expand the audience.

But it sold 5.2 million.

What. That's ridiculous.

 

[WarpZone]

Ugh. Capcom? Crazy idea. How about you just make a good game with zombies in it? No racism, no stupid plot that makes no sense. Just, you know, make a good Resident Evil game.

If you can't do that anymore, then you are not worthy guardians of the franchise.

 

[Raziel]

I can see there point. I don't know anyone playing RE that didn't play the originals when they first came out.

I used to be a big fan. But after 4 I've basically stopped caring. Its the same game with the same crappy controls. Actually I've noticed most capcom games have controls I just don't like using. Being made by capcom is now a strike against a game. Unless there is a demo I like I never buy anything by them anymore.

 

[Drauger]

1) How big will Jill Valentine's boobs have to be for this remake?

4) How big will Rebecca Chambers' boobs have to be for this remake?

8) How big will Claire Redfield's boobs have to be for this remake?

Answer these questions please CAPCOM.

This capcom . please answer our questions.

Ontopic: Maybe a reboot is needed, again ?, but for the love of god keep the survival horror?, I remember saving bullets to kill Nemesis at the start of RE 3 choosing which zombies to kill and which to avoid so I had enough bullets to kill nemesis and get the falcon, and no infinite inventory , now that was survival horror................. I would love a remake of re 2 and nemesis seriously, ok... I'll see if my playstation can boot nemesis I need to play that it now XD.

 

[stiffy]

the headline should read: "Capcom: Our Resident Evil marketing gimmicks, and 73 year old CEO is out of touch with our audience."
"Resident Evil 7: Leon Kennedy: the Awkward Teen Years" to be released holiday 2015.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

You know this is hilarious, if anything I am the target demographic now seeing how I am approaching my mid 20?s meanwhile when I was a fan and supporter of the series, I shouldn?t have even been able to play any of the games. And guess what? As a kid, it wasn't the SPLOSIONS! And Michael Bay action that drew me to Resident Evil. But hey what can you expect from Capcom, it?s never their fault right? It?s always the fans.

 

[FalloutJack]

I'm actually going to start this post with the captcha today because it came up with a good one.

Captcha: don't waste time

Capcom, you wasted time. You are like FOX TV programmers, finding a gem of goodness out of all the crap and either running it into the ground or canceling it after much mishandling. You're just no good now. Don't waste our time.