Darkstalkers Resurrection Sales Kill Sequel Hopes

Earnest Cavalli

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Darkstalkers Resurrection Sales Kill Sequel Hopes



Despite being objectively fantastic, nobody bought Darkstalkers Resurrection, thus putting the future of the franchise in jeopardy.

Darkstalkers Resurrection is a brilliant attempt at updating two classic fighters from the mid-1990s for modern audiences. I won't hear any arguments on this. I wrote a review of the game when it came out [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10251-Darkstalkers-Resurrection-Review], and I stand by every glowing iota of praise contained in those words.

Unfortunately, all my hyperbolic text (and that written by colleagues who almost universally agree with me) wasn't enough to convince the average person to spend $15 on Darkstalkers Resurrection. Capcom isn't in the habit of revealing exactly how poorly its flops perform, but it's safe to say that sales of Darkstalkers Resurrection were disappointing. Perhaps to the extent that the Darkstalkers franchise has once again been staked and shoved into a dusty tomb in the series of catacombs beneath Capcom HQ.

Speaking with Siliconera, Capcom's fighting game head Matt Dahlgren had the following to say regarding the series' possible future (or lack thereof): "Darkstalkers Resurrection did not perform as well as we would have liked [it] to perform. You never know what the future may hold, but Street Fighter is definitely not dead."

That last bit, the mention of Street Fighter, is surprisingly important. Not only because Capcom just debuted the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter IV, but also because "Darkstalkers is not dead" became something of a refrain for Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono over the past few years. That was his sole reply to anyone asking about the future of the Darkstalkers franchise, right up until the release of Darkstalkers Resurrection.

We're sure Mr. Dahlgren was attempting to be diplomatic with his statement, but by inverting Ono's would-be catchphrase he appears to have slammed the door on any potential, near-term Darkstalkers titles. On the other hand, Capcom will continue churning out Street Fighter sequels until the heat death of the universe, so that's something, right?

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/07/22/darkstalkers-were-just-resurrected-but-they-are-resting-in-the-grave-for-now/]

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Roxas1359

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Earnest Cavalli said:
Capcom isn't in the habit of revealing exactly how poorly its flops perform, but it's safe to say that sales of Darkstalkers Resurrection were disappointing. Perhaps to the extent that the Darkstalkers franchise has once again been staked and shoved into a dusty tomb in the series of catacombs beneath Capcom HQ.
So it's safe to assume it's in the same place where Capcom has been storing Megaman and the Legends 3 beta then?
I must find this dusty tomb and free them from their torment! :D
*grabs pick and hard hat*
Wish me luck.

OT: Well I'm interested to see if they had ridiculously outrageous expectations again for their sales quota because apparently in this industry nowadays anything that doesn't sell at least 5 million copies in the first month is considered a flop, and Capcom are no strangers to unrealistic expectations.

If it's any consolation Mr. Cavalli, I bought the game and quite like it. ^.^
 

Colt47

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You know, you'd think companies would realize that releasing an HD re-release of 1990s niche title is not indicative of whether a new one would succeed or not.
 

Dr.Awkward

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I think a unique approach on how they could have sold this even further is if they had also released a MAME-compatible version. I'm certain a few fighting aficionados would love to put this on a custom arcade deck.
 

Dr. Crawver

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Well, while I play, and do enjoy darkstalkers, I get the feelings that having so few iconic characters might have something to do with this. Morrigan and Felicia are really the only ones I could have recognized before I'd even played it, and I didn't even know what games they came from. On the flip side, SF has ryu, ken, guile, gief, chun-li (they seem to be the ones people recognize the most), tekken has Hehachi, king, yoshimitsu, even a fucking bear is recognizable. Just for a bit of context as well, I've only really been playing fighting games for about a year now, but have gotten quite into them.
 

Grabehn

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Hold on... When did this remake came out? I had no idea it was out, or even existed...
 

twaddle

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Grabehn said:
Hold on... When did this remake came out? I had no idea it was out, or even existed...
Ditto.
I had known even though i'm currently all pc, i would have still bought it
 

Roxas1359

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Grabehn said:
Hold on... When did this remake came out? I had no idea it was out, or even existed...
twaddle said:
Grabehn said:
Hold on... When did this remake came out? I had no idea it was out, or even existed...
Ditto.
I had known even though i'm currently all pc, i would have still bought it
Came out back in March of this year. It came out on the PS3 first, then came to the XBLA the day after it was released on the PS3. Weirdest thing is that it came out last in Japan, but the Japanese have a disc version of the game, which is the version I bought.

Earnest Cavalli said:
Neronium said:
If it's any consolation Mr. Cavalli, I bought the game and quite like it. ^.^
Good work. You'll be safe in the inevitable global cleansing.
:D
I get to survive another day, another day of me sucking at Darkstalkers!
 

Colt47

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Grabehn said:
Hold on... When did this remake came out? I had no idea it was out, or even existed...
The marketing on the game was kind of short lived. I think the review sites gave it more justice than any official advertisements.
 

Joriss

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So wait, if players don't buy this cheap cash-in of capcom, that instantly means we don't care a damn about Darkstalkers?

How about getting your shit together Capcom and just make a new darkstalkers! Care about the freaking games themselves like you used to instead of thinking only about money. I don't recall the developers of Street Fighter II thinking "yeah, this baby is gonna print money!"...
 

RaikuFA

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Joriss said:
So wait, if players don't buy this cheap cash-in of capcom, that instantly means we don't care a damn about Darkstalkers?

How about getting your shit together Capcom and just make a new darkstalkers! Care about the freaking games themselves like you used to instead of thinking only about money. I don't recall the developers of Street Fighter II thinking "yeah, this baby is gonna print money!"...
It's Capcom, they pull this shit all the time. I mean, they killed MML3 because "not enough people participated" in the devroom.
 

rofltehcat

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I'd probably have bought it... but I don't have a PS3 nor a 360. I'm not good at fighting games but I still enjoy some Street Fighter 4 and SFxTekken from time to time.
 

go-10

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of course nobody bought it, not only did it come out at a bad time but it was the same game, this wasn't a remake like Street Fighter Turbo HD, this was the same game from the 90's no HD graphics or textures

maybe if they had done an actual remake or I don't know a NEW GAME!!! They would have a different story, I mean sure they can make a budget for Dark Void but they can't take a gamble on a game people actually want, fuck you Crapcom
 

Roxas1359

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cursedseishi said:
RaikuFA said:
Joriss said:
So wait, if players don't buy this cheap cash-in of capcom, that instantly means we don't care a damn about Darkstalkers?

How about getting your shit together Capcom and just make a new darkstalkers! Care about the freaking games themselves like you used to instead of thinking only about money. I don't recall the developers of Street Fighter II thinking "yeah, this baby is gonna print money!"...
It's Capcom, they pull this shit all the time. I mean, they killed MML3 because "not enough people participated" in the devroom.
That was according to the British side of Capcom's Twitter, and the person saying that got his arse kicked pretty hard over it if I remember rightly.


It was, of course, obvious bull anyways. Having been one of the people who participated pretty heavily in the Devroom (heck I was Servbot 942 in it! Before the glitches started to hit hard...), most of the contests they ran on there required drawing and/or writing, which of course not everyone is going to be good at, or won't enter because they don't think they're good enough at it. But there was a healthy population there.



Specially for something that Capcom refused to really advertise. Hey now... doesn't that sound familiar here...?
I couldn't go to the devrooms, but I did submit my designs for Aero as was greatly looking forward to the game. Heck I remember designing some Reverbots as well. Maybe with hope one day another company will get the rights to Megaman and then we can possibly have an ending like how it was for this video:


Joriss said:
Care about the freaking games themselves like you used to instead of thinking only about money. I don't recall the developers of Street Fighter II thinking "yeah, this baby is gonna print money!"...
Sadly I think the days of companies doing that are long gone, Nintendo being somewhat of an exception in this. It would be nice if Capcom didn't become what it has become now, but maybe there is a parallel universe where the gaming industry would listen to some fans (a comapny trying to appease ones fans doesn't always work because some fans demand only one thing from a company *cough*Fans wanting a FF VII remake*cough*) while also making wise decisions and being willing to take risks. It's a dimension I wish to find some day. :D
 

DaxStrife

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Yep, the failure is all the game's fault, not the fact that it received little fanfare/advertisement, was only a remake, and was limited to just one console. Damn, how do these people even get into the marketing and management field?
 

WhiteTigerShiro

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Here's your first problem, Capcom: The phrase "They released a new Darkstalkers game?" No seriously, when did this happen, and why is Capcom shocked that it didn't do well when someone who spends most of his time on gaming websites is just-now hearing about it?