Change in Sales Game of the Day

Resident Evil

                         Resident Evil: Code Veronica (2000)             Resident Evil 0 (2002)

                                       Resident Evil 4 (2005)                          Resident Evil 5 (2009)

In anticipation of Halloween this and the next couple of "Sales of the Day" articles will be looking at games in the horror genre.

Description: The Resident Evil series became one of the most successful franchises in gaming, with the release of the first three games on the Playstation. Last generation however, the franchise seemed to be losing some steam. Evil the critically lauded Resident Evil 4 was not able to match the sales of the original titles on the Playstation. With the release of Resident Evil 5 on the PS3/360 however; the franchise seems to be revitalized. Resident Evil 5 has already outsold all of the Resident Evil titles from last generation despite on average having a ~43% smaller install base, and the game is still selling. So why has Resident Evil 5 sold better than last generations entries in the franchise? Read on to find out what we decided.

Resident Evil 4 sold 4.43 million on last generation consoles and an additional 1.62 million on the Wii for a total of 6.05 million copies putting it just behind the 6.38 million sales of Resident Evil 2 (combined Playstation and Nintendo 64 sales) as the best selling Resident Evil title. Resident Evil 4 reversed the downward trend the series was in with the games starting with Resident Evil Nemesis, by moving away from the survival horror genre and blending in more action game elements.  The revitalized interest the franchise experienced as a result of Resident Evil 4 played a large role in people’s anticipation of Resident Evil 5 and is why the game had such an impressive opening week of 2 million copies across the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Last generation Capcom made strange decisions about which platforms to release the Resident Evil games on.  After successfully launching the Resident Evil brand on the original Playstation, Capcom moved the franchise away from Sony last generation. The first Resident Evil title of last generation, Code Veronica, was released on Sega’s failed system the Dreamcast and only sold a little over a million copies on the platform. Later Capcom made an agreement with Nintendo to bring the franchise over to the Gamecube, a system with a small install base (total sales equaling 25.1 million) and no track record of selling mature rated games.  Resident Evil 0 sold 1.26 million copies (by far the least of a main series Resident Evil game), and Resident Evil 4 sold 1.69 million copies on the Gamecube.   While Resident Evil 0 remained exclusive to the Gamecube, both Coder Veronica and Resident Evil 4 were ported to the Playstation 2 a year or more later after their original release, and both games sold more on the PS2 than the original console. This generation Capcom took the safe route by releasing Resident Evil 5 simultaneously on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, the same strategy most other big budget 3rd party games have used.

The other factor I think played a significant role in the success of Resident Evil 5 is the marketing and promotion of the title. For Resident Evil 5 Capcom put together intriguing trailers and game play videos of the game, which reportedly got over 24.5 million views online (industry gamers). There was also an elaborate viral marketing campaign on Capcom’s website that encouraged fans to convince others to visit the site to be able to unlock more information about the game. Finally the demo for the game released on both the Xbox Live Marketplace as well as the Playstation Network was downloaded over four million times (gamesutra), all of this promotional effort combined helped ensure the success of Resident Evil 5.

With Resident Evil 5 still selling around 10,000 a week the comparisons to last generation will become even more favorable for the game. That is my take on the comparison, here is what the VGChartz community thought.

nen-suer - “Resident Evil 4 changed a lot towards the action genre. It was a disappointment to most of the Horror crowd, but a pleasant surprise to the action crowd. And as we know action games tend to have more sales than horror games. So the franchise indeed gained popularity between generations.”

Final –Fan – “ With due respect to Resident Evil 5, IMO it was standing on the shoulders of Resident Evil 4. That game revitalized the series and provided the momentum that allowed this one to be even bigger.”

MontanaHatchet -“I think it had a lot of momentum going from the name of the series itself. Just look at how well Resident Evil 4 sold (especially on the PS2).  Many people wanted to see old franchises upgraded with better graphics and the features possible with HD consoles. And since Resident Evil 5 was part of such a classic franchise, word of mouth likely spread over to a lot of people who had never picked up the franchise, but wanted to know what all the fuss was about. But mainly, it hit the right demographic and it had a lot of hype.”

That is it for today’s Change in Sales Game of the Day if you missed the thread be sure to comment letting us know why you think Resident Evil 5 was able to improve on the sales of the franchise from last generation. Tomorrow we will be continuing on with horror franchises in anticipation of Halloween, you can head over to the Sales Battle of the Day thread featuring Dead Space vs. Dead Rising. I’ll leave you with a brief video that will bring back memories (most likely of being scared) for anyone who played the original Resident Evil.

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