Latest Entry in Capcom’s Flagship Series Exceeds 500,000 Units in Sales
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - June 6, 2005 — Capcom’s Resident Evil® 4 , the critically acclaimed survival horror masterpiece for the Nintendo GameCube™, has sold more than half a million units since its debut on January 11. According to The NPD Group’s sales tracking report, the game claimed the number one position for its launch month of January this year and sales have continued to hold strong. The NPD Group’s most recent report, which monitors sales data through April 2005, confirms that the game has surpassed the 500,000 mark through its successful cumulative sales in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, the report reinforces the strength of the Resident Evil series on the GameCube with Resident Evil® , Resident Evil 4 , and Resident Evil® Ø (Zero) holding the positions as the top three “M” rated titles for the system with combined sales of more than 1.5 million units in the U.S. and Canada.
Based on the popular Resident Evil series, which has sold more than 26 million units worldwide and is Capcom’s highest selling series, Resident Evil 4 sees the return of a familiar hero on a mission of the highest level. Resident Evil 4 carries an “M” rating for mature audiences by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) and will also be released for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system later this year.
“With Resident Evil 4 , the series and the entire survival horror genre have been advanced to a whole new level,” said Todd Thorson, director of marketing, Capcom Entertainment. “It’s been rewarding to see that the incredible response the game has received from fans and critics has been mirrored by a phenomenal retail performance.”
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: KnowsNothing on June 06, 2005, 11:37:32 AM
Where all the comments at?
Here's a summary: RE4 will continue the tradition of Cube to PS2 games and sell poorly on the PS2, yet Capcom will learn nothing. The common estimate was around 300,000 on the PS2. There were a lot of other words, some of them included fish in the ocean, some ponds, giant ears, echo-location, underground anomolies, and grits.
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: Karl Castaneda #2 on June 06, 2005, 11:40:11 AM
Little bug ate those comments. Damn bug. Sorry folks.
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on June 06, 2005, 11:50:41 AM
is it time for me to start releasing movies of all the cutscenes to spoil the game now?
Title: RE:RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: vudu on June 06, 2005, 12:25:06 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Professional 666 is it time for me to start releasing movies of all the cutscenes to spoil the game now?
No. I still haven't gotten around to playing it yet. But I plan to someday.
Only problem is, it's summer now, and my TV is right by a very large window. Since RE4 is best played in darkness (or so I imagine) I might have to wait until this winter until I finally play it.
Title: RE:RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: Djunknown on June 06, 2005, 12:32:25 PM
Good idea. Let the hardcore Sony fanboys gouge their eyes after massive spoilage...
Seriously, this is disappointing. Beyond dissapointing. More like pitiful. I believe world wide sales numbers add up to one million, but still, its just beyond words. What does it take, do I have to buy every copy at my local store and give them out on the street?
Quote In addition, the report reinforces the strength of the Resident Evil series on the GameCube with Resident Evil® , Resident Evil 4 , and Resident Evil® Ø (Zero) holding the positions as the top three “M” rated titles for the system with combined sales of more than 1.5 million units in the U.S. and Canada.
That had to be painful to write. Its not like they had much competition to begin with. Now the spin makes it sound like the RE (semi) exclusivity paid off, but Capcom knows better. I highly doubt that they'll do this again, or if any company will trust Nintendo with their prized franchise exclusive to their system.
Quote “It’s been rewarding to see that the incredible response the game has received from fans and critics has been mirrored by a phenomenal retail performance.”
Half of that statement is true. The gaming press loves this title. The fans love this title. The semi-fans love this title. The haters loved this title. Phenomenal retail performance? Compared to what? Gran Turismo 4? NBA Street Vol 3? God of War? To be fair, it ripped up January and didn't get lost in the holiday shuffle.
That's all the gripe I have. Now back to Professional mode...
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: Ian Sane on June 06, 2005, 01:22:29 PM
"Now the spin makes it sound like the RE (semi) exclusivity paid off, but Capcom knows better. I highly doubt that they'll do this again, or if any company will trust Nintendo with their prized franchise exclusive to their system."
Well I think that 500,000 is quite good for any third party game at this point in the Cube's life and for a game that's sales were more-or-less sabotaged by its own publisher. I wouldn't say that RE on the Cube was a failure, it just wasn't exceptionally successful. Capcom didn't bleed money or anything but it wasn't like they made tons of cash off of this deal either. It wasn't a disaster but I agree that Capcom likely isn't going to put RE on the Rev.
I really wonder what Nintendo and Capcom's relationship is going to be like now. Both companies kind of let the other one down in this deal. Nintendo was obviously supposed to attract a larger userbase on the Cube but didn't and the Resident Evil games' sales suffered for it. Nintendo also ruined Capcom's plans to re-release RE2&3 by not giving them a deal on the licence fees which forced Capcom to overcharge for the ports and it completely killed sales as a result. Capcom on the other hand screwed Nintendo out of potential Cube sales by announcing that RE4 was going to be released on the PS2 before RE4 came out thus sabotaging the game's sales. They also released an exclusive RE game on the PS2 via a loophole. Both guys stepped on each other's toes so I really wonder if they're still friends.
Nintendo would obviously be the big loser if the relationship has gone sour. Getting Resident Evil was a BIG DEAL. Back when the Cube was first being shown I was convinced that it would be Nintendo's comeback and getting Resident Evil as an exclusive just confirmed it to me (this is back when Zelda wasn't a cartoon, Mario was expected to be a launch title, and Nintendo had vague "online plans" that were to be revealed at a later date). The RE deal was a golden opportunity for Nintendo to fix a lot of their problems. They could have used it to kill off the "k!ddy" image and to improve third party relations. I think the reason that things didn't really go as planned was largely because Nintendo didn't really do anything to follow up RE. They made a big third party deal and then didn't really do much else for a while until the Xbox beat the Cube at Christmas 2002 and Nintendo went into scramble mode and started going nuts on franchise games (the incredibly superflous deals with Sega and Namco) and basically allowed Square and Konami to walk all over them. Nintendo really could have benefited from this deal and like Djunknown said other third parties are not likely going to take the same risk Capcom did since it didn't really pay off.
So what can Nintendo do now to try to salvage everything? Ideally I think the best strategy would be to offer to publish some games for both big and small third parties in exchange for those games' exclusivity. Offering some choice third parties the creative freedom to make whatever game they want on the Rev with Nintendo footing the bill would get some big third party games on the Rev early on and they could use that as a starting point to improve third party relations. If a third party has a big hit early on on the Rev I think they would be more interested in the system. The important thing is to get them on the console in the first place to make that hit.
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: ruby_onix on June 06, 2005, 05:05:58 PM
Quote Jonathan says: It's pitiful that it has taken six months to reach this mark. In a series that has sold 26 million games, half a million is underperforming, especially for the best game in the series (BY FAR).
RE Dead Aim and Outbreak on the PS2 = I don't know, but I thought they bombed
GCN: REmake and RE:Zero = 1 million
GCN: RE4 = 500,000
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: ruby_onix on June 06, 2005, 08:11:37 PM
BTW, there are one or two other things that I can take from this info.
Quote with Resident Evil® , Resident Evil 4 , and Resident Evil® Ø (Zero) holding the positions as the top three “M” rated titles for the system with combined sales of more than 1.5 million units in the U.S. and Canada.
The "mature" fanbase on the Cube is apparently 1/2 million people. REmake and REZero did their part in brining in the fans, but nobody else did. RE4 couldn't possibly have done any better, under the circumstances.
Also, nobody with a PS2 bought a GameCube for RE4. Possibly because Capcom told them not to. Of course, we'll never be absolutely sure why PS2 fans didn't buy any GameCubes for RE4, but I personally think that had something to do with it.
BTW, Capcom apparently expects to sell 2 million copies of RE4 worldwide on the PS2.
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: ShyGuy on June 06, 2005, 08:53:52 PM
Okay, now according to this official PDF http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/data/pdf/fy2005b.pdf RE4 sold 660,000 units in North America, with a total of 1.23 mil worldwide. 160k is quite a number discrepancy. Or maybe it's 500 thou in USA and 160 thou in Canada?
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: Mario on June 06, 2005, 09:06:27 PM
Well, at least it's outsold RE and RE0 in the US, unlike in Japan where it sold about half the amount (I do not understand this country). I'd say it's done quite well, all things considering. It should keep selling decently and eventually it will pass one million in North America.
Title: RE:RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: K-RPG on June 07, 2005, 07:03:49 AM
Why are the staff's comments negative?! The game sold better then even Capcom forcasted, and has sold 1.3 million units world-wide.
To put that in prespective, they recently announced that they expect the PS2 version will sell 2 million units, on a system which has sold exponentially more units then the GameCube, in the holiday season -- and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the GameCube version say a relative boost in sales around the same time.
Title: RE: RE4 Reaches Half-Million Milestone
Post by: KDR_11k on June 07, 2005, 08:59:15 AM
vudu: That's not an issue. Capcom realizes that a game can be dark without actually being dark. I can always see what's going on in RE4 despite having the same sun problem you do. They should give a few lectures to Ubisoft staff some time. A supposedly bright game like Beyond Good & Evil is completely unplayable in a light environment.
