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Capcom Discusses Darkside Chronicles Sales, Looming Handheld Difficulties

by Pedro Hernandez - January 6, 2010, 12:12 pm EST
Total comments: 48 Source: Nintendo Everything

Capcom discusses the underwhelming sales of Darkside Chronicles, and their expectation of difficulties for the DS.

In a recent Google-translated interview from Capcom France, executive Antoine Seux commented on various aspects of the company and its performance on Wii. When asked about the sales of Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, Antoine expressed that sales were good but well below expectations, with only 16,000 copies sold since its release in December. He elaborated that "One feels that there is a problem very clear on this style of game on the Wii, where gamers are obviously moved on" and that "the customer of this console has turned to something much broader audience. It is a disappointment."

When compared to the sales of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, Antoine stated that “Resident Evil 4 on Wii had worked well, but he was released in June 2007, when the market had nothing to do! This year the Wii was very difficult with an oversupply, and a gamer market that has radically changed." He went on to compare the sales of broad-appeal titles like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to games like Madworld, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, and other titles that have sold poorly. "We note that the games called “gamer games” are selling less and less on the Nintendo console", Antoine explained. "Whether MadWorld, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, The House of the Dead: Overkill … scores were not extraordinary. Compared to 140,000 pieces sold Resident Evil 4 on Wii at the time, it is very far away. There is clearly a concern to this level.”

Part of the problem regarding sales of Darkside Chronicles is that the game wasn't supported by French retailers, its 18+ rating preventing wider sales. "Unfortunately, this is a game rated 18 +. The advertising campaign was not visible at peak times by the general public, and that’s what counts at this time of year."

When asked why Capcom hasn't supported the DS in France, Antoine replied that "Capcom has never been strong on DS". He continued that Capcom expected handheld gaming to see difficult times in 2010, explaining that "This will be a difficult year for the handheld in general, DS or PSP. We should see the rise of the PS3 and Xbox 360, with, hopefully, expansion of game styles, open to a wider audience".

Finally, Antoine expressed his sentiments about how the Monster Hunter franchise is performing in Europe. He admitted that while sales aren't as big as in Japan, there's an interest for the games, and that sales expectations are high for Monster Hunter 3 on Wii.

Talkback

PeachylalaJanuary 06, 2010

Quote:

"Whether MadWorld, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, The House of the Dead: Overkill scores were not extraordinary. Compared to 140,000 pieces sold Resident Evil 4 on Wii at the time, it is very far away. There is clearly a concern to this level.

I can answer Capcom French PR guy's concerns rather easily.

Madworld was too expensive and too niche for it's own damn good.
Dead Rising was a shitty port that screamed "MAKE US MONEY WII OWNERS".
HotD: Overkill was also too niche.

Quote:


We should see the rise of the PS3 and Xbox 360, with, hopefully, expansion of game styles, open to a wider audience, and hopefully no lay-offs

I wanted to make an HD joke, but it just won't work. This is all I could come up with.

ShyGuyJanuary 06, 2010

RAIL SHOOTER

NO MORE TESTS

broodwarsJanuary 06, 2010

Well gee, Capcom, what did you expect?  You pretty much ignored the Wii as a platform for releasing AAA games on for 2 years, so you're surprised when 2 years later you have trouble selling traditional games on the thing?  As much as I love Darkside Chronicles, it's a rail shooter and not the Resident Evil game I wanted on the system after RE4 Wii.  I didn't get my Wii to play Rail Shooters, nor crappy ports of games that came out years ago on other systems (Dead Rising) NOR overpriced ports of games that came out years ago that I can still play on this system (RE1 and RE0).

NinGurl69 *hugglesJanuary 06, 2010

Let me summarize future statements from game publishers that the gaming press will report on:

"Yes we tried Wii, but we didn't try Wii.  We suck."

Sounds to me like the major factors were:

1. They couldn't market it as effectively
2. Demand for on-rail shooters is dropping

Killer_Man_JaroTom Malina, Associate Editor (Europe)January 06, 2010

16,000?! What in the hell happened there, Capcom? Umbrella Chronicles was a million seller. Some people in the company clearly aren't doing their job well enough. A drop in demand for this style of game wouldn't make that much of a difference.

vuduJanuary 06, 2010

16K is probably the number for just France (or maybe Europe in general).  1(M) for Umbrella Chronicles was worldwide.

TJ SpykeJanuary 06, 2010

I call BS on his statement on Capcom never being strong on DS, I think it's more that he is just lazy and wants to do as little work as possible. In the 5 years since DS launched, Capcom has released:

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS
Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker × Ninja
Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker × Saurian
Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace
Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker
Mega Man Star Force: Dragon
Mega Man Star Force: Leo
Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus
Mega Man ZX
Mega Man ZX Advent
Neopets Puzzle Adventure
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations
Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star
Rosario + Vampire: Tanabata no Miss Yōkai Gakuen
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
Sally's Salon
Tropix
Wantame Uranai Channel
Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble!

Mostly Mega Man and Ace Attorney, but still.

Uh, the only top-shelf games on that list are the Phoenix Wright games.  The rest are mediocre to garbage.

Quote from: NWR_Lindy

Uh, the only top-shelf games on that list are the Phoenix Wright games.  The rest are mediocre to garbage.

And almost all of those Phoenix Wright games were ports, actually.

TJ SpykeJanuary 06, 2010

The Mega Man games got decent reviews and sold really well, same with Ace Attorney games. Viewtiful Joe: DT was a alright game too.

Kairon, only the first 3 were ports (and the first was not really a port as it also included a new case just for the DS). The recent 2 were made for the DS and there is a new one coming out soon.

Luigi DudeJanuary 06, 2010

Good, Darkside Chronicles deserved to bomb.  Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition sales showed the Wii audience wanted a real Resident Evil game.  The only reason the first Umbrella Chronicles did so well is because a lot of the people who bought RE4 Wii also bought it to show Capcom there was an audience for this series on the Wii.

And how did Capcom repay Wii owners, by giving them another cheap ass spinoff instead of a real game.  So it's no surprise that the Nintendo fanbase has given Capcom the finger for their bullsh!t.

"This year the Wii was very difficult with an oversupply, and a gamer market that has radically changed."

That's the only thing he said that I can agree with. 2009 was a good year for Wii, with actual competition for gamers' dollars. And the "gamer market" on Wii has indeed radically changed since 2007, in that people will no longer buy any old lazy crap that comes along. There are still tons of RE and Capcom fans who own the Wii system... if they aren't considering Capcom's latest Wii games, that is a testament to what Capcom is releasing on the platform. Not to mention that Capcom dramatically diverted the RE fans' attention away from Wii by releasing RE5 only on the HD systems.

In 2007, many Wii players were okay with a design-limited but well produced game like Umbrella Chronicles. By now, we expect developers to have set their sights a lot higher, and Capcom did not get that memo.

Agreed. It doesn't help that Darkside wasn't as good as Umbrella Chronicles. And yes, there certainly is an over-saturation of light-gun games. I own eighteen Wii games, and five of them are light-gun shooters. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm a huge light-gun fan, there's just an overabundance of them on the system.

BlackNMild2k1January 06, 2010

This is the Capcom version of that Sega story.

1 guy isolated in his department making generalized statements that sound like he is speaking for the company as a whole.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJanuary 06, 2010

I'm having difficulty buying the Dead Rising "demake."

Quote from: Halbred

Agreed. It doesn't help that Darkside wasn't as good as Umbrella Chronicles.

T_T.

I like DC better than UC...

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterJanuary 07, 2010

I have to be honest about this whole fiasco...


Yes, the Capcom French Representative is mistaken in some of his remarks. But the fact is that the Wii does have a hard audience to appeal to, due to having both expanded audience gamers that only bought the Wii for Wii Sports and Wii Fit and Nintendo fans who shun any game not made by Nintendo.


I hate it how fans are quick to say "Oh the game didn't sell because it sucked/it was an on-rails shooter etc.". First of all, quality means nothing here. Capcom, EA, Sega, ANY company could make a groundbreaking, stunning game with some of the best motion controls ever seen on the Wii and it would have likely flopped because the audience either doesn't care or doesn't know about it.


Also, I refuse to think that these mature games are mediocre, thus the main reason they didn't sell. They all received good to excellent reviews from the major gaming outlets. They did a lot considering the weak Wii hardware and tried to re-invent the genre they were working on.


About Wii gamers getting sick of on-rails shooters, then what is going on with the PS3 and 360 fanbase? They too get games that generalize their gaming tastes with constant FPS games that "appeal" to the fanbase, yet I don't hear anyone complaining nor sales dropping.


What I will agree about is that they could have done a lot more when it came to marketing. Most of the marketing done for these games were done on online sites and forums, with the company hoping that would be enough to generate "word of mouth" sales. Its a proven fact that this doesn't always work. Most gamers solely rely on game reviews and forum opinions for their game purchases. If they hear the game sucks they will not bother with it. What they need to do is to widen their marketing muscle and focus outside the typical online forum and get people to blindly buy the game based on only good faith.


So long story short, yes, these companies made their share of mistakes when release these titles on the Wii. But I also think its unfair of them to claim its ALL their fault when the fanbase they are working in is fickle, because the Nintendo fanboys don't want to support them and the expanded audiences are out of the loop or too intimidated by these new games.


Its a frustrating thing, and don't blame them for ranting about it.

Chozo GhostJanuary 07, 2010

Rail shooter. Enough said.

SixthAngelJanuary 07, 2010

Quote from: NWR_pap64

I hate it how fans are quick to say "Oh the game didn't sell because it sucked/it was an on-rails shooter etc.". First of all, quality means nothing here. Capcom, EA, Sega, ANY company could make a groundbreaking, stunning game with some of the best motion controls ever seen on the Wii and it would have likely flopped because the audience either doesn't care or doesn't know about it.

Tell me when they actually make a groundbreaking game.  I'll settle for efforts on par with the ps2.

Quote from: NWR_pap64

Also, I refuse to think that these mature games are mediocre, thus the main reason they didn't sell. They all received good to excellent reviews from the major gaming outlets. They did a lot considering the weak Wii hardware and tried to re-invent the genre they were working on.

The person here talks about ports years later (Dead Rising) and about Madworld.  Made by the same people as the "hardcore" loved yet retail flops God Hand and Okami on everyones favorite ps2.

Quote from: NWR_pap64

About Wii gamers getting sick of on-rails shooters, then what is going on with the PS3 and 360 fanbase? They too get games that generalize their gaming tastes with constant FPS games that "appeal" to the fanbase, yet I don't hear anyone complaining nor sales dropping.

FPS games have been hugely successful for years on different platforms.  Rail shooters have always been a niche.  Big fps games can sell millions.  The biggest railshooter sold about 1 million.  The genres simply have different levels of appeal, it is completely normal.

ThePermJanuary 07, 2010

its not so much that rail shooters are bad, i would love some kickass new virtua cop, and have always been tempted to buy some house of the dead. The deal is the gun resident evil games have never been popular or critically acclaimed. They have a resident evil theme,, BUT they ARE NOT RESIDENT EVIL.

I bought Umbrella Chronicles when it came out because I had some extra cash, and a gaming habit. The last 2 years I've been without a job, im one of the many victims of the bad economy. I don't have disposable income. So, a game better be fan-fucking-tabulous to get my money. Its funny how the dollar is declining, you would think in a bad economy a dollar would be worth more. I bought an SD card for my sister for 15 bucks, she may have washed it in the clothes washer, you think I was fuming? 15 bucks was nothing a couple years ago, now I never see much cash..so its like argh!

then there are a couple of games I consider, but then they sound like underwhelming dissapointments(conduit, madworld) not worth my time, then there are games that get great reviews that I don't hear much about till its out and everyones raving about it. Then there are those that everyone said were bad like Links Crossbow training that everyone suddenly loves!

KDR_11kJanuary 07, 2010

Wii games thrive on word of mouth. The word of mouth I was spreading on Conduit was "save your money". Games like Mad World, HotD, REUC, DR:CTYD, etc were never even released here.

Quote from: NWR_Lindy

Uh, the only top-shelf games on that list are the Phoenix Wright games.  The rest are mediocre to garbage.

The Mega Man ZX games were pretty good. Not big sellers but neither are the PW games AFAIK.

Chozo GhostJanuary 07, 2010

It seems to me that Wii owners are now conditioned to wait a few months for the price to plummet before they buy. This is probably at least partly due to the early games like RE4 which was priced at a mere $19.99 and I think we started to expect that in future games and weren't willing to pay $50 on similar titles.

But of course, the sad thing is these rail shooter RE games are nowhere near as good in quality or anything else as RE4 was. If you can pay $19 for an A+ title, why would you ever be willing to pay $50 for a C- game? I completely understand that RE4 was only so cheap because it was a last gen title ported over, but even so the sad thing is to this day it is just about the best M rated 3rd party offering on the Wii. Rail shooters can be fun, but they just can't ever compete with a game that you can move around freely. The greatest rail shooter in the world is no match for an average non-rails game.

The sooner the 3rd parties start realizing this the sooner they will stop heading into bankruptcy.

KDR_11kJanuary 07, 2010

Quote from: Chozo

It seems to me that Wii owners are now conditioned to wait a few months for the price to plummet before they buy.

Would be quite ironic considering Nintendo has been working hard to build up the image that games DON'T drop in price so fast and that they're worth the asking price.

Not that I'd be opposed to lower game prices of course, I think it's atrocious that games are 50-70€ when all other media are significantly cheaper and for newer gamers like my mother those prices are way too high.

vuduJanuary 07, 2010

The rigid price structure of games and the expectation of price drops really hurts the industry as a whole.  I don't hesitate to buy first-party Nintendo games or DS games when they come out because I know price drops aren't very common amongst these titles.  But I'm certainly not going to spend $50 on A Boy & His Blob or Darkside Chronicles when I know I can pick them up for $20 to $30 a couple months after they release.

Ian SaneJanuary 07, 2010

To me it just seems that third parties have poisoned the Wii and now there's no going back.  To use Capcom as an example they half-assed their initial support.  Their best effort was a port of a Gamecube game (which is already playable on the Wii).  I think Capcom's typical target demographic has just lost interest in the Wii due to Capcom never giving it that good of support to begin with.  Like Capcom?  Like Resident Evil?  If so what use is the Wii to you?  Resident Evil 5 is on the PS3 and X360.  All of Capcom's other big games like Street Fighter, Devil May Cry and Dead Rising are on those consoles and not on the Wii.

What demographics is the Wii really ideal for?  It's clearly the best choice for kids, casuals and Nintendo fans.  The VC is the best choice for classic gaming so it wins there.  And it is the console of choice for lightgun games but, really, how much of a market is there for THAT genre?

For years I complained about the Wii's poor third party support and for years I was told to just buy another console.  This was apparently the normal thing to do.  I didn't like it but I eventually gave in.  Well now the Wii is just my Nintendo machine.  I don't really pay any attention to anything else.  I'm not alone in this.  I imagine most of Capcom's target demo is in the same situation: if they own a Wii they also own at least one of the other consoles.  If you're a big Capcom fan this is a REQUIREMENT.  So why would you even remotely care about Capcom's Wii efforts when you've got a console that has Capcom's REAL games on it?

This is the situation that I think third parties have created.  For a core gamer the Wii is insufficient.  So you have to buy another console and the Wii becomes a specialized item and thus only the best exclusives (ie: Nintendo first party efforts) are really going to grab your attention.  You don't HAVE to put up with anything else so you don't bother.  The combo of consoles you have provides enough variety that one need not bother with mediocrity.

So yeah, Capcom is going to notice that their RE lightgun spin-off isn't going to sell anymore because the lousy third party support that THEY were a part of has made it so that most Wii owners that would have been the target demo for those games have now bought a second console and thus no longer need to "settle" for less.  They've got RE5 now, they don't need a lightgun game to get their RE fix.  They don't need to bother with the Wii for their Capcom fix.  The Wii is only required now for their Nintendo fix and, what a surprise, Nintendo games continue to be high sellers.

PeachylalaJanuary 07, 2010

While I pretty agree with Ian that Capcom and a majority of third parties have dug their own hole and there is no way they can get themselves out of it, there is something that comes to mind: even though the established franchises are selling well on 360 and PS3, will the other games follow suit? Can these 'hardcore' keep Capcom alot with original IPs? I seriously doubt it, but I would love to be proven wrong.

BlackNMild2k1January 07, 2010


But I'm certainly not going to spend $50 on A Boy & His Blob or Darkside Chronicles when I know I can pick them up for $20 to $30 a couple months after they release.

Ian SaneJanuary 07, 2010

Quote:

even though the established franchises are selling well on 360 and PS3, will the other games follow suit? Can these 'hardcore' keep Capcom alot with original IPs?


Dead Rising and Lost Planet were both new Capcom IP's for this generation.  How well they sold on those consoles would give you an idea.  Both games are getting sequels so I'm assuming they sold okay.

vuduJanuary 07, 2010

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

I just picked up A Boy & His Blob for $20, did you miss the sale?

I'm the one who told you about the sale!  And that's my point!  I didn't buy it for $50 because I knew it would drop in price within a few months.

BlackNMild2k1January 07, 2010

thanks, even though I have yet to open it. :)


This is the situation that I think third parties have created.  For acore gamer the Wii is insufficient.  So you have to buy another consoleand the Wii becomes a specialized item and thus only the bestexclusives (ie: Nintendo first party efforts) are really going to grabyour attention.  You don't HAVE to put up with anything else so youdon't bother.  The combo of consoles you have provides enough varietythat one need not bother with mediocrity.

spitmanJanuary 07, 2010

I bought Darkside Chronicles and have several  friends that are playing it as well...  but I am the only one that purchased the game!  the hardcore players are the people that know how to hack their Wii and steal the games...  grandma does not know how to do that, therefore mainstream games that appeal to grandma are the ones that sell!  Wii fans are destroying the Wii, not the developers!

BlackNMild2k1January 07, 2010

I haven't hacked my Wii* or stolen any games.

Are you saying your friends are a bunch of thieves?


*probably gonna hack it to backup save files with online sections
I game on 2 different Wiis and don't want to start over on certain games.

Luigi DudeJanuary 07, 2010

Quote from: Ian


Dead Rising and Lost Planet were both new Capcom IP's for this generation.  How well they sold on those consoles would give you an idea.  Both games are getting sequels so I'm assuming they sold okay.

But Dead Rising and Lost Planet both had huge multi-million dollar marketing campaigns as well.  When these games were released you had ads all over big mainstream television spots here in the US and low and behold, both games sold very well here.  In comparison, the only marketing Capcom has done with with it's Wii games is some web banners on Gamefaqs.

Had Capcom given Zack and Wiki the same advertising budget Lost Planet got to have, the game probably would have done a hell of a lot better and we'd all be looking forward to Zack and Wiki XYZ 5 Turbo in March.

Ian SaneJanuary 07, 2010

Quote:

But Dead Rising and Lost Planet both had huge multi-million dollar marketing campaigns as well.


I know.  But the question was whether or not hardcore gamers would buy new IP.  Well here's an example where they did.

I feel a videogame company is responsible for two things when releasing a game:
1. Making a good game
2. Making sure the target audience is aware of the game.

Do both of those and still fail?  Okay, now you can point your finger at the userbase.

Chozo GhostJanuary 07, 2010

Now that the PS3 and 360 are getting their own motion control options, it will be interesting to see if they start suffering from the same curse of light-gun rail-shooters. How well do you guys think Darkside Chronicles would do on other systems?

What these types of games do is dilute the franchises they are based on and alienate the fans. It won't change anything to have it on another system.

BlackNMild2k1January 08, 2010

I hope we get a game swap as soon as Sony Wand is available.
We get RE5 Alternate Edition and they can have RE:UC & DSC

then we can see who can sell late ports better.

Maybe it's just me being pessimistic, but I have this sinking feeling that the Disco Stick is going to have a better lineup of first-person shooters than the Wii before the end of 2010.

BlackNMild2k1January 08, 2010

No. that's called being realistic. they will.
Resistance and Killzone 2.5 are likely to happen. That alone will already shit on the Wii FPS offerings.

And those along with Resident Evil 5: Controllable Edition mean I'm going to have to buy one of them. Part of me is sad that Sony may have success by blatantly copying Nintendo, while Microsoft is going to fail spectacularly while actually trying something new, as flawed as it is.

BlackNMild2k1January 08, 2010

I think with the disappointing news that Natal is gonna sap 1/3 of the systems processing that MS is having to re-evaluate their strategy of graphics and 4th dimensional control.

I really think Sony has it right and the only thing bad about their approach in the look of the wand itself. They will have the graphics and the control, but probably not the crown.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJanuary 08, 2010

Plus Sony must try to sell it to existing customers, provided there isn't some hidden market for closet Motion PS3 FPS fans.

Mop it upJanuary 08, 2010

I'd bet Sony's motion controller will probably end up like the Wii Motion Plus accessory, with one good game it comes packaged with and only a couple of mediocre games available, then maybe the promise of one high-profile game with a vague release date.

StratosJanuary 08, 2010

Has NPD even been released yet? I think we have another week for that. I want to know where they are getting their numbers because don't you think it is a little early to be calling sales for the holidays, even in other countries? Reggie said end of January and here we are just over a week into the new month and people are already calling it. I find that suspicious.

BlackNMild2k1January 08, 2010

Nintendo & Sony have already spoiled NPD December by releasing #'s from the holidays, but NPD Dec. isn't till Jan. 15th

PeachylalaJanuary 08, 2010

Quote from: Mop_it_up

I'd bet Sony's motion controller will probably end up like the Wii Motion Plus accessory, with one good game it comes packaged with and only a couple of mediocre games available, then maybe the promise of one high-profile game with a vague release date.

Except for one thing: is it going to be as good as a WiiMote with the M+ attached to it? The Wiimote wasn't the most perfect motion controller in the beginning (Nintendo made M+ to rectify that...kind of), but is Sony's magic wand that perfect? Third parties will be jerk asses and ignore the Wii (our sad reality), but will it be good for them sales wise?

BlackNMild2k1January 08, 2010

tech wise(using the Eye Toy combination), the sony wand is superior to the wiimote(3D spacial tracking and no calibration). But that is a converstaion for the disco wand thread
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29445.0

PeachylalaJanuary 08, 2010

Nintendo can't do anything about fixing third excuse maker iggnorance, but I just want them to focus on NOT RUSHING games like they did with the Gamecube.

And not to wait hand and toe to help third parties. Nintendo tried to help Tecmo with Fatal Frame 4, but Tecmo were ass-hats. Nintendo is better off supporting developers like Blue Tounge, Monster Games and Platinum (the last one should happen, it would be amazing).

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