Capcom: Our Resident Evil Gamer Fanbase Is Too Old

Albino Boo

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Trishbot said:
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.
 

BrainWalker

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Here's what I'm hearing: "The problem with Resident Evil 6 is absolutely everything we could possibly think of, except that the game was terrible."

If there's one piece of advice that I find works just as well for personal growth as well as corporate growth, it's this: "If you fuck up, always look outside yourself for excuses, never look inside and examine your own faults."
 

SonOfVoorhees

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How about capcom actually make a survival horror game like the original RE and maybe they will get sales. Make Resi more like a shooter instead of a puzzle based game was their mistake. The age argument is stupid, anyone of any age can buy the game if they like it. They are just coming up with excuses.
 

ShakerSilver

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Nov 13, 2009
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What is it with Capcom and they're sudden desire to chase new audiences? First there was DmC's FUCK YOU to the fans of the previous games and now there's this.
 

Myndnix

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I suppose they do have a point, I mean, we're too old now, only a child would find these 'horror' games frightening.
I see them as more of a B-Movie sort of thing. Like watching crappy films because they're funny.
 

Toilet

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Sounds like Crapcom is going to Reboot Resident Evil, a REboot if you will.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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I'm sorry. I'll try to get this straight.

So... we're too old. So capcom decided to go to magazines, theme restaurants and the like.

Are... are there many young 14-15 year old gamers who read fashion magazines? Do they have enough money to go to restaurants themselves? Don't you think the only time those kids would go is if the parents take them... and don't you think only a gamer parent would take them to said restaurant?

Capcom is starting to remind of Seth MacFarlane. They both decided they hate their flagship and they want to sink it without outright cancelling it because it would make some stock holders unhappy.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Jul 18, 2009
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Yeah, that's what we wanna hear, 'your favourite game franchise is becoming a brand'.

I can't wait for my Resident Evil potato chips, Resident Evil vacuum cleaner, Resident Evil toilet paper. Yay!

You're stepping deeper and deeper into that quicksand, Capcom. We're eventually going to have to call Leon to come and put you out of your misery.
 

Trishbot

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albino boo said:
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.
Then I would argue for all the OTHER M-rated games that continue to sell well, many of which are OLDER than Resident Evil. From Mortal Kombat to Metal Gear Solid to Tomb Raider.

And the survival horror genre that Resident Evil helped pioneer, that they've retreated from, continues on with great success in popular games ranging from Dead Space, Amnesia, Slender, Outlast, and dozens of others.

It's not that people have "outgrown" the series. It's that Capcom lost its creative talent, went creatively bankrupt, and like all other lousy companies with no clear direction, just looked at what was popular and decided to imitate it, but tagged it with a recognizable brand name to help move units. When you have no ideas, you copy what everyone else does and see what works... but in this case, Resident Evil WAS working, but Capcom's eyes got bigger than their stomach.

See also: them turning Breath of Fire 6 into a mobile F2P game (yeah, the fans just LOST that), dropping the ball on DLC beyond every other company (charging for cheat codes? colors? endings? on-disc content? friendly fire? DIFFICULTY modes?), reiterating Street Fighter over and over and over and over (but too scared to do any of their OTHER fighting games with non-Street Fighters, like Rival Schools or Darkstalkers), etc.

They lost their nerve and their talent. Too scared to risk something creative, but too stupid to figure out how to successfully imitate their competition.
 

Smokescreen

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Of course it's not Capcom's fault! It's just the inexorable march of time that forced upon them low sales.

Not the fact that they sold a game called Zombie Puncher, instead of Resident Evil.
 

Colt47

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It's like they think younger people can't possibly get interested in Resident Evil. Then again, Capcom has problems right now in it's executive management so I'm not surprised at it's current offerings.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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It sells 5.2 million and they claim gamers have "grown out of it" and don't come running anymore.

Wow. Fucking wow.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
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THEY WERE YOUNG ONCE! Young people can like classic style RE games too. Are they blind? Can't they see the success of indie horror titles? All they need is good marketing.
 

Something Amyss

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MarsAtlas said:
If that got you depressed, don't even think about Colonial Marines. At least Resident Evil 6 wasn't completely and utterly broken at release, but Colonial Marines sold well even despite bring probably the single most-broken game of 2013.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123916-Aliens-Colonial-Marines-Sales-Prove-Bafflingly-Massive

If Capcom and SEGA have learned anything, its that they can lower production costs and shovel out cheap garbage and as long as they have a beloved franchise name in the title, people will buy it. So people just shamelessly fuck it up for thee rest of us.
Yeah, I saw that one, too. I don't even.

But honestly, the sales of these games aren't so much the message, as the end result. People have been buying crap for ages, and defending not only it but the companies that do it.

I think Capcom's probably the worse offender here, but I didn't really know Gearbox before Borderlands/BL2. But Capcom's been dicking their fans over for years and years now, and the fan response is "thank you sir, may I have another?"

Well, first it's teeth gnashing and outrage, THEN it's "thank you sir, may I have another?" Which is honestly worse.

I see a lot of folks rant and rage, but they raged before, and then went out and bought more crap from Capcom (and other companies, of course). I'd think there'd be a logical breaking point, but we clearly haven't come close to that yet.
 

MrBrightside919

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Oh Capcom...you so cray cray...

It wasn't the overly action gameplay in RE6 that was the problem...it was obviously the fans that were the problem...

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!!!

*facedesk*
 

2xDouble

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kannibus said:
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".
 

Amir Kondori

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In trying to squeeze every last dollar out of a "brand" or "IP" they typically end up destroying it. Just look at what has happened to the quality of the latest Resident Evil games. They smack of publisher directives and aping popular genres and mechanics.
Instead of picking a skilled developer and letting them have some freedom to come up with something exciting. I don't expect them to rehash the same thing every time but if they are going to change the game at least do it in an interesting way and not just "make it more of a shooter because shooters sell big". That is the surest way to kill your franchise. The developer has to be passionate about what they are making to put out something special.
Video games seem to be where TV was in the 90's, homogenized and always chasing the last big hit. Today TV execs have seem to got a little bit of a clue and give the products, writers, and creators more creative freedom, they realize not taking any risks is a huge risk in itself.
I think video games will get past this point, but it will take some time and hurting bottom lines, like, I don't know, Capcom's maybe?