Topic: RE's exclusitivity status

[Michael8983]

I could understand if RE lost its exclusitivity status if the games sold poorly but they didn't. They may have not sold as well as they would have on the PS2 but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Mikami had to have expected this. He just disliked the PS2 so much he was willing to take a hit in sales. The REmake sold WAY above Capcom's very conservative projections and though REO didn't live up to Capcom's ridiculously hopefuly projections, it still sold more than well enough to call it a success, especially considering how soon after the REmake it was released and the heavy competition it faced from other "mature" games during the holiday season.

I think all this talk of the games going multi-platform is just wishful thinking from Sony/MS fans. There's been talk of just about all of the Gamecube's big exclusive third-party titles going multi-platform. Rogue Leader, Monkey Ball, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. There was actually talk of the RE games not really being Gamecube exclusive even before the REmake came out.
But, unlike XBox exclusives, Gamecube exclusives seem to remain exclusive and I don't think the RE games will be an exception.  

[Ninja X]

Quote
Originally posted by: Michael8983

I think all this talk of the games going multi-platform is just wishful thinking from Sony/MS fans. There's been talk of just about all of the Gamecube's big exclusive third-party titles going multi-platform. Rogue Leader, Monkey Ball, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. There was actually talk of the RE games not really being Gamecube exclusive even before the REmake came out.
But, unlike XBox exclusives, Gamecube exclusives seem to remain exclusive and I don't think the RE games will be an exception.

he rumor was started by a Japanese magazine, not Sony/MS fans.  You are right about Xbox exclusives though.  
A success copies-wise, but profit's a different story.  I think the copies sold hit Capcom's projections and stayed around there.  Can you give me a site that tells me how many copies Capcom projected would sell for both RE games?  

[ruby_onix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ninja X

Quote
Originally posted by: Michael8983
I think the copies sold hit Capcom's projections and stayed around there.  Can you give me a site that tells me how many copies Capcom projected would sell for both RE games?

I don't have any links handy, but here's what I remember from reading assorted stories and sales charts.

Nintendo supposedly told Capcom that RE Remake would sell at least a million copies worldwide. I've never seen anyone say that outright though.

Capcom expected RE Remake to sell 400,000 in Japan.

RE Remake trailed off just past 200,000 in Japan, which was when Shinji Mikami took the opportunity to vent about how Sony was deliberately making their products to break easily so they'd get the numbers to inflate their "hardware base" image, causing them to actually get a bigger hardware base, and cause blatantly overpriced games like Kingdom Hearts (all Square games are abnormally expensive in Japan, because Square can get away with it) to sell like hot cakes while he wasn't getting any respect (presumably from his bosses).

Then RE Remake sold 400,000 in the States and 400,000 in Europe, which spawned reports that Capcom was extremely impressed, and that their expectations were for half that amount in each region. Supposedly they chalked it up to Japanese gamers being "unable to accept a remake" and not giving it a chance.

200,000 in Japan plus 400,000 in the States plus 400,000 in Europe is one million.


Then RE Zero supposedly sold 300,000 in Japan. With no special reports or anything about Capcom's attitude.

Then RE Zero supposedly sold 300,000 in the US. I don't know how it did in Europe (if it's even out yet).

Now we're hearing some reports that Capcom's not happy about it. I'm assuming they noticed that RE Zero saw a 50% increase over RE Remake's  Japanese numbers, so they expected RE Zero to do 600,000 in the States, and it only did half of that.

However, if they chalked up RE Remake's "low sales" in Japan to the Japanese not accepting a remake, then they shouldn't have expected more than 400,000 in the area that wasn't affected like that (North America). Plus you can factor in how closely RE Remake and RE Zero came out compared to each other (when by all visual appearances they're offering exactly the same gameplay experience). And then you can factor in that they put RE Zero up against an American-oriented blockbuster like Metroid Prime.

IMO, having RE Remake and Metroid Prime and RE Zero coming out in a short time was a great thing for hardcore people like me, but it's a lousy strategy if you're shooting for the "casual" gamer.

[Ninja X]

Extremely impressed?  Hmm...perhaps it's time to fish around the internet for charts that shows the profit made for each game.  As for RE0, I think that maybe came out to soon.  Also, it did have much to compete with.  

[ruby_onix]

I've found one link about Capcom's expectations for RE Zero (compared to Devil May Cry 2).

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/359/359525p1.html?fromint=1

DMC2 expectations:
650,000 in Japan
700,000 in North America
430,000 in Europe

An expectation of 1,780,000 worldwide by the end of the fiscal year (which ended on March 31, IIRC).

RE Zero expectations:
1,170,000 worldwide by the end of the fiscal year.

DMC1 apparently shipped 2 million units between August 2001 (it's Japanese launch) and May 2002 (the time of this story).

[StRaNgE]

Tonight I picked up resident Evil 2 for the gamecube.

Let me back step for you before I get to far. Back when resident evil came out for PS I never got very far in it, between the jerky controls and lackluster graphics it just did not do much for me. I blame this on an infatuation when I was in high school  with gore and movie effects not to mention spending the last 10 years of my life drawing things for a living the  make the original resident evil graphics look like a child created them.  Anyway,  I lost interest in the game and never got even to the second floor all those years ago. The entire series was killed for me ( I know , I was being close minded).

Fast forward to the launch of the gamecube and the Remake of RE and release of resident evil Zero. I saw clips of these and  I immediately picked up the remake and was hooked instantly. Visually this game was astounding, in motion it surpassed what I was expecting from screen shots. The music and sound effects were spot on as well. This game drew me in and had me anxious for the sun to drop so I could get back on it ASAP. I played 90% after midnight and alone. It actually had me creeped out and that's not an easy thing to do. (I'm the guy at the haunted house that you see  getting shoved through the new passages 1st so all his friends can hide behind).  So Resident Evil Zero was next for me. It too was stunning, I enjoyed the remake more but still was very into Zero as well (I think something about a deserted mansion  in the middle of nowhere  just makes for a spooky setting.

Those two titles had grabbed me and brought me into a series of games I probably would have never purchased before. Because of those high intensity graphics Resident evil has now claimed another victim.


Back to the present. tonight I  spent  a couple hours playing RE 2. At 1st I thought I would be able to deal with the graphics not being updated as the remake was done. I thought I was hooked and  even if the controls were not as smoothed out or inventory remade that it would be no big deal that I would play through and be as hooked as I was on the other 2. I am afraid to say that is not the case. I have read that 2 is supposedly the best in the series which makes me wish even more they spent the time redoing it as they did 1. I will continue to truck through it as I am interested to see where the story goes and then will do 3 and if the release code veronica that as well.

So I have been thinking about it and  I cam to the conclusion that graphics do matter.
I see so many people post about how it's all in the game play and graphics do not matter and  I have come to a firm decision that they matter just as much as sound and game play. It's a 2 way street, the graphics need to go with the game play and sound  and vice versa, they all feed off one another  and once you get spoiled to a look for a particular game it's very hard to accept  anything less.


So who else here has realized that they two are a graphics whore

don't worry you can still care about game play too!

[StRaNgE]

I  have just read that RE 5 has been announced.
I have yet to find anything official on this though.

Seems  quite a few people on another forum are talking about it being announced  so it's made me wonder, but there are no links to where they saw it so I am skeptical.

If this is being announced already and as they say for  another system not gamecube do you think it would hurt sales of RE4 and the cube . people might assume 4 will be ported over.

I still wish 2 and 3 got the makeover 1 did, I would have waited that much longer ....

[nolimit19]

nintendo just needs to wake up and develope there own mature exculsive games. but i really dont see that many less matuure games on the cube then any other console.....i just think that most of the great games for cube arent violent or sexually themed...i mean beach volley ball is "mature"....who bought the game though...little kids....and the game sucks according to reviews and the feedback from gamers that i have gotten. i will take a few good and great mature games, over a lot of crap. which is what the other consoles get. not to mention...most consider sports games in that same mature catagory. the cube has too many of those damn sports games as it is. and u know they all suck.....we got madden and thats really all we need for football. and we have pretty good games for every other sport. so we dont have halo or gta.....if u want them that bad buy the othe console. o and about re.....i think if re4 sells over 5 million copies it will stay exclusive to the cube.....so pretty much everyone and there mom needs to buy that thing...save ur pennies people.

[WesDawg]

I could care less about Mature titles. They all seem the same anymore. I know this topic isn't about this, but I'm excited about weird games like PN03 and this new Chibi Robo. Maybe Nintendo can just be the company with strange and different games. They sorta started this way with Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion, and Monkey Ball. I know a lot of people who would buy a PS2 to get rehash after rehash, and buy a Cube to get the new interesting stuff.

[Ninja X]

RE5?  Interesting...this could effect Cube sales of RE4, but probably in a very slight manner.  Still though, if RE4 will sell well, it could be possible to see RE exclusive yet again for the next Nintendo console.

[ruby_onix]

IMO, most RE5 rumors going around right now are because of IGN-PS2.

You see, they had this "Big Games of 2003" feature, but they Insider-locked it, so most people couldn't read what it actually said. But one of the biggest things it said on the little graphic they drew up for it, was "Resident Evil 5".

Insert every "Capcom is getting around those stupid Nintendo contracts by making RE5 come out as soon as, or before, RE4!" theory you can come up with onto a bunch of message boards.

Once the story was unlocked, you could see what they actually had to say on the subject. Apparently Capcom decided to secure the website name for RE5. Ummm, which apparently automatically means that it's a multiplatform game, or at least a PS2 game, because there are no contracts saying it can't be. Oh yeah, and they admit that it's most likely not a 2003 title.

But that hasn't stopped anyone from listing RE5 as a "rumored" PS2 blockbuster.

[ruby_onix]

Here's some more reading on Capcom and sales expectations, courtesy of IGN.

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/394/394131p1.html

Titles listed as filling short of their expectations:

Breath of Fire 5 (PS2)
Clock Tower 3 (PS2)
Biohazard 0 (GCN)
Chaos Legion (PS2)
P.N.03 (GCN)

Two GameBoy titles did better than they expected, but it wasn't enough, so they're trying to do a better job of predicting how titles will perform, and cutting 18 titles from the 100 or so that they previously had in development.

[Ninja X]

I don't like PSM and IGNPS2.  They give us bull about GCN half the time and give their fans what they want, thus starting rumors.

[StRaNgE]

Looks like the RE5 they were talking about is actually just RE online, they seem to have the facts twisted a bit.

see here

[mouse_clicker]

Interesting they called it RE 5, though- for one, it's not a game in the main series, or even close to it. Second, it's been common knowledge that RE Online was a PS2 game for a looooooong time. IGNPS2's editors must be a bit wacky.

[egman]

Capcom seems to be in real trouble, and it has very little to do with having exclusives on the Cube. I don't think a port of RE:make or RE 0 to the PS2 would have grabbed more sales. If the series wasn't stale, it still would've been system seller, like it was during the PSX days. But RE is not the only issue here. DMC 2 also fell short of expectations even though it was exclusive to PS2. I think Capcom has set their sales expectation so high that now they seem to be in danger, even though the actually sales numbers are decent.

Thinking about the recent news of the Sega/Namco merger, it does not seem all that surprising that Capcom is having woes. While the video game market is growing, I think the that growth is more isolated to the west. That would explain how western style games have become more prominent while Japanese developers seem to be slowly slipping from under the radar. Even Nintendo is dealing with this as their top franchises seem to be selling slower than in the past while at the sametime not moving consoles as one would think.

I don't know what the developers have to do know, but it seems more and more that shift is occuring. Hopefully everyone can adapt before we see a lot more Segas.

[egman]

Things are not looking good

Here's a link to some more offical Capcom news

If they are considering cutting 18 games in development, particularily ones with that will be hard to market, then I think the Capcom 5 are in serious jeporady. Nintendo may have to subsidize the deal if they still want those games to come to the Cube.
I want Viewtiful Joe so badly, but things aren't looking too good for it unless it's nearly done.  

[GokuSSJ2]

According to that article, Capcom didn't sell as many games, not only for Gamecube, but PS2 as well.  It stated it projected high for RE:0, Devil May Cry 2, and Clock Tower 3.  2 of those are for PS2 only.  

How could you interpret this as Capcom may pull games from Gamecube?  Things sold poorly for PS2 also.  

People worry too much.  

[nolimit19]

i dunno...i think that game was already almost done.....viewtiful joe that is. i htink that dead phoenix will probably never see the light of day. it really sucks that it missed its target by 300k. hopefully sales are high for future capcom games for nintendo. at least it went over 1 million though. it would be much worse if the missed their target by something like 800k. and yea the ps2 games sold just as poorly. and i dont know if re0 would sell that much better on ps2. look at dmc2....it barely sold better then re0 and thats a newer cooler franchise. i wouldnt worry about capcoms games....for now anyways.

[Ninja X]

The Capcom Five ain't looking good so far.  P.N. 03 sold below expectations as well as RE0.  Capcom might be setting their profit expectations a bit too high.  Greed is a bad thing.  

[Michael8983]

"The Capcom Five ain't looking good so far. P.N. 03 sold below expectations as well as RE0. Capcom might be setting their profit expectations a bit too high. Greed is a bad thing."

I wouldn't be surprised if PN3 simply joins the ranks of titles like Super Monkey Ball, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and the REmake which underperformed in Japan but WAY overperformed in the US.
But even if PN3 does sell below expectations in overall worldwide sales, it won't be such a big deal. The game seemed to be very low-budget and was made by a small development team, presumably in a very short amount of time. What Capcom really needs to worry about is its big-budget, resource-sapping PS2 titles underperforming. The problem with the PS2 is its userbase of very casual gamers only seems to be interested in one or two BIG titles a year and so many other titles that deserve attention are ignored. The GTA games hogged ALL the spotlight this past year.

[egman]

GokuSSJ2--It's not that I'm worried that Capcom is going to abandon the Cube. I'm worried that those particular games may get the axe. Outside of RE4, these are all untested games being marketed to a small userbase in a market that is not too kind to games that veer off the beaten path. I have no doubt we might see more multi-platformers coming our way, but exclusives likes these are in trouble if Capcom is going perceed in that direction. Which makes feel sad both for us gamers and Capcom because some of these titles represent the freshest things to come from Cap in awhile. Certainly fresher than RE or the millions of Street Fighter spin offs we've seen in the recent past.  

[Uncle Rich AiAi]

Capcom has about 100 games title in development and stopped 18.

hmmmm...let me guess what some of these 100 titles are?  RE 5 to 20 and -1 to -20???