Mikami: Remake's Poor Sales Created RE4's Focus

[Rombie]

The Resident Evil remake, a Nintendo GameCube exclusive, was one of the last games made by Mikami that had limitations on movement, inventory, and camera. Can survival horror go back to that? “It’s possible that I could make that kind of game. The Resident Evil remake is actually one of my favorites of the series too. But it didn't sell very well,” Mikami said. “Maybe there weren't many people ready to accept that. Because of the reaction to the Resident Evil remake, I decided to work more action into Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 4 would have been a more scary, horror-focused game if the remake had sold well.”

Full article over at IGN.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/26/resident-evil-4-came-out-of-the-commercial-failure-of-re-remake

I'm in two minds over this. We can probably all agree the franchise needed a shake up and that a remake of the original was going to have some limited appeal than a new game. But also Mikami, and the interviewer, fail to question or discuss that the sales weren't that bad for the number of people with a GameCube in 2002 and if the game had not been Nintendo exclusive it would have sold better. It's all well to point out how well RE4 did critically and sales wise but then you need to point out the inferior PS2 version confortably outsold the GC one simply because there was more PS2 owners.

[Northman]

That Nintendo exclusivity deal was a total fail move from Capcom (not that they are any strangers to those). I've certainly never appreciated the fact that they forced me to buy a Gamecube just to be able to play the REmake. Capcom had a good thing going with Sony, why on earth change that?

[yurieu]

Its just Mikami promoting his new game RE4-like. in a recent topic here, RE remake sold 1.250.000. RE4 on GC sold 1.600.000.

Poor sales was not the main problem. some other thing was.

[Flak Master]

I'm in two minds over this. We can probably all agree the franchise needed a shake up and that a remake of the original was going to have some limited appeal than a new game. But also Mikami, and the interviewer, fail to question or discuss that the sales weren't that bad for the number of people with a GameCube in 2002 and if the game had not been Nintendo exclusive it would have sold better. It's all well to point out how well RE4 did critically and sales wise but then you need to point out the inferior PS2 version confortably outsold the GC one simply because there was more PS2 owners.

Reminds me of what happened to Shenmue 2 when it came out on the Xbox. It sold horribly because most of the people who played the first one didn't own an Xbox. Which is my main problem with Nintendo's exclusive games. Not only am I not interested in a good number of them, but they have to be on a console that I don't really care to own too much.

This begs the question, what was Capcom thinking by making an exclusivity deal with Nintendo for the Resident Evil series? The only advantage the RE series would have on the Gamecube would be the more powerful hardware. Even then, hardware isn't what sells a game console. It's usually the games.

Oh well. REmake was great, but I got stuck later on the 1st disc and eventually just gave up due to my schedule. (especially now that I'm in college!)

[Guest]

That Nintendo exclusivity deal was a total fail move from Capcom (not that they are any strangers to those). I've certainly never appreciated the fact that they forced me to buy a Gamecube just to be able to play the REmake. Capcom had a good thing going with Sony, why on earth change that?

And yet here they are again with a Microsoft exclusive Dead Rising 3. It seems some things never change.

[Graco]

Its just Mikami promoting his new game RE4-like. in a recent topic here, RE remake sold 1.250.000. RE4 on GC sold 1.600.000.

Poor sales was not the main problem. some other thing was.

Well, my community had few gamers before the whole online shooter thing became standard practice, but from what I could tell Resident Evil had began falling out of favor because there was no direction after Code Veronica. A remake, a prequel, side stories such as Outbreak, Dead Aim, the GameCube ports...Resident Evil was all over the place and there was next to nothing regarding RE4.

People were tired of seeing Resident Evil with nothing new or exciting happening in the games. The formula wasn't the problem, it's that their elements were stale and reused and Capcom didn't have the balls to properly end the Umbrella story arc so they said "fuck it" when after a lot of people stopped caring and other franchises began to flourish.

Don't get me wrong, I loved REmake but they should have carried on with the series after its release (as much as I desperately wanted a remake of RE2) and properly concluded Umbrella, and then give rise to a new villain/group in the background. (sup Wesker)

[yurieu]

Well, my community had few gamers before the whole online shooter thing became standard practice, but from what I could tell Resident Evil had began falling out of favor because there was no direction after Code Veronica. A remake, a prequel, side stories such as Outbreak, Dead Aim, the GameCube ports...Resident Evil was all over the place and there was next to nothing regarding RE4.

People were tired of seeing Resident Evil with nothing new or exciting happening in the games. The formula wasn't the problem, it's that their elements were stale and reused and Capcom didn't have the balls to properly end the Umbrella story arc so they said "fuck it" when after a lot of people stopped caring and other franchises began to flourish.

Don't get me wrong, I loved REmake but they should have carried on with the series after its release (as much as I desperately wanted a remake of RE2) and properly concluded Umbrella, and then give rise to a new villain/group in the background. (sup Wesker)

yes. pretty much this.

i remember there was so much critics regarding RE2,3,CVX ports, nothing new, and expensive.

we had Outbreak, dead aim(a lot of people dont know it) for the ps2, these titles were not so heavy.

remake and zero were the main hits, with zero being a "remake part two", which even I didnt buy in 2003.

the hype and lights were on RE4. in the end, no matter what would it be its formula, keeping the 3d visuals and over the shoulder style would make success anyway. sad they took the worst plot and visuals erasing the former creator's development.

[Lanzagranadas]

RE4 with all its innovation was not either a successful game on the GC, it didn´t sold too much more than RE, and it was a brand new game while RE GC was a remake of a previously existing game.

Mikami and Nintendo will never recognise that the mistake was on the GC exclusivities. Don´t know why, imo the GC was the best platform from its generation, with better titles than PS2 and Xbox, but looks like the majority of the people didn´t think so. GC was one of the less successful platforms in Nintendo´s history, and it obviously harmed the sales of a lot of its amazing games.

[Vixtro]

Seems like an excuse to dodge the real reason by simply saying that REmake's poor sales were the reason. He would never publicly say the real reason though because I expect he wants to keep on good terms with Capcom.

Everyone I knew at the time expected a follow through of remakes of RE2&3 after how great REmake was, even some magazines started hyping it up (although I think they were confusing the ports as remakes, much like allot of people still do today with HD ports etc.). I was personally hoping for the remakes, and not just for the gameplay and graphics enhancement, but for the story to be more elaborated and even maybe have new plot lines, much like REmake had with Lisa Trevor. I think it would have been a fantastic way to build up to RE4, which by at that point would've been in mega anticipation.

[alexdz]

Turns out that releasing exclusives for the third place console isn't a good idea. No surprise Capcom is bleeding money, they're run by idiots.

[blackpower]

In fact resident evil 3.5 was supposed to be the latest installment of the resident evil series, especially with the fall of the umbrella corporation is connecting with the progenitor virus of resident evil 0, it would have been an excellent chapter is sold much more than the remake came out, if you had done rather than what we have, then after the series you would of the remake on the series by adding something new.

[Don Piano]

I would say it was less the RE:Make and more RE0, alot of people hated that game when it came out and thought the series needed a reboot at that point......sound familiar?

[News Bot]

In fact resident evil 3.5 was supposed to be the latest installment of the resident evil series, especially with the fall of the umbrella corporation is connecting with the progenitor virus of resident evil 0, it would have been an excellent chapter is sold much more than the remake came out, if you had done rather than what we have, then after the series you would of the remake on the series by adding something new.

Umbrella wasn't going to fall in any version of 4.

[blackpower]

Would be the last installment of the resident evil series

[News Bot]

Would be the last installment of the resident evil series

Wrong.