It needs action ”especially” for the US market, and actually need to ”take that a step further” than they already have. Resident Evil 4 and 5 ”aren’t shooters, per se.”
RE4 started off the call for action, ”and RE5 kept going in that direction,” said Kawata-san. The survival horror market ”is small” compared to the numbers that ”all those action games sell.”
”I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further. And that’s exactly one of the reasons that Revelations is the way it is,” explained the game’s producer.
”Looking at the marketing data, the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell,” he added. Kawata-san isn’t directly involved with Resident Evil 6, but he knows action is a focus.
”It doesn’t have to be a straight up shooter, but my impression is that Resident Evil 4 and 5 aren’t shooters, per se.” Capcom aren’t abandoning the series roots however as there’ll always be horror, just not like their used to be from the original game with fixed cameras ‘guessing’ where you’re aiming - those days have passed.
”We have our numbered series, and we can say we have a more adventure-oriented version, like a Revelations-style game,” said Masachika Kawata. ”We also have Operation: Raccoon City, which is a third-person shooter.”
”I think that by extending the market in this sense, we can still have the numbered titles keep their identity about what Resident Evil is supposed to be, but still expand and hit other markets as well.” They aren’t going to make the series pander to the market though, as that’s the wrong approach to take.
”If you’re going to be selling a game based on its good gameplay, then you don’t have to worry about the market in which it will be sold,” he said. ”That might be obvious, but that’s why Grand Theft Auto IV, Skyrim and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare also sell in Japan, because their gameplay is interesting.”
Slant Six’s Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City hasn’t been received well by critics with the Xbox 360 and PS3 shooter barely scraping above an average score of 50 on Metacritic. The spin-off hasn’t garnered much love among fans too.
