Resident Evil Producer "Survival horror isnt popular enough in America"

[Archelon]

Kawata isn't even working on Resident Evil 6, right? I don't think anything he says about the direction the series "should" or "must" take means much of anything at this point.

[Pikminister]

If they wanted to get rid of the cheese they should focus all of that money on hiring actual translators.

Ok, here's what he said...

RE5 Cutscenes director - Jim Sonzero: "Some things when translated literally come off corny to us. I was given the script and there were 48 scenes that had to be worked out as cinematics, whether they were martial arts sequences, or horror sequences, or dramatic sequences.

So my role was to take those things in the script and create storyboards for each dramatic beat or action beat, and to envision how it would play out as a movie. It was almost an hour of content. Also I was involved in creating the look, the lighting, the feel and mood of the scene with concept artists".

The translated script that the translators handed to him was way too corny for him. I dunno if there is another interview that I read, but I remember that he had said that he needed to get rid of the corn (or cheese).

But clearly, the problem was with the people doing the translation.

[Smiley]

RE5's combined sales impressed Capcom. How much a game makes or what the majority of casual think of these games matter little to us. But for Capcom it matter a great deal. We're past the point of them making countless sequels and spin offs for any reason other than money. So they're going where the money is. And they are aware that for some of their games they want to reach a new market of gamers. This is one of the reasons they had Slant Six develop ORC and Ninja Theory develop DmC. No one asked for a spin off tactical four on four shooter set in a RE setting. And like wise not many DMC fans thought the series needed a reboot. These games are for a different crowd.

I'm fine with ORC as a spin off. Has it's place with the other spin offs that deviate in game play and/or story. When the main series is at stake then I'm annoyed. And RE6's trailer didn't make me think the Gears of Duty craze would be leaving anytime soon. As much as I liked Revelations I could still see how the casual market has influenced that game and how it was a step away from being the next RE5.

[Pikminister]

Kawata isn't even working on Resident Evil 6, right? I don't think anything he says about the direction the series "should" or "must" take means much of anything at this point.

It's not like he tried to hide that lil' factoid...

Kawata said, "I can't really speak for Resident Evil 6, but I don't think that it necessarily has to go all the way in that [action-heavy] direction, the Call of Duty direction. It doesn't have to be a straight up shooter

[Archelon]

I'm not saying he did, but there are a lot of websites out there now twisting it around to claim Kawata has said that RE6 will have no survival horror whatsoever and will be all action.

[News Bot]

I'm not saying he did, but there are a lot of websites out there now twisting it around to claim Kawata has said that RE6 will have no survival horror whatsoever and will be all action.

You expect anything more from "gaming journalists"?

[Mr. Spencer]

Call of Duty is a cancer.

[Smiley]

Well when you have a Capcom producer and a Capcom Head of Marketing bring Call of Duty into the mix for each response, and say the direction is heading for action (followed by an action packed trailer) it's hard to believe the actual people working on the game aren't doing so with the mindset of making a larger than life title expected to make the same amount of money. But we'll see in due time if they even release it in November.

[Rombie]

People are forgetting context over concept, especially you Pik. Revelations needs to be looked at on the fact it's on a handheld platform that doesn't have the install base of a combined multiplatform release on the 360 and PS3. It was never going to sell 6 million+ units like RE5 did. But from most accounts for the platform it's on it'd be of it's top sellers... and if thats the case Capcom will be very happy because it's probably meeting or surpassing it's sales targets.

I find the combining sales thing slightly iffy on the Capcom FY reports anyway. They used to break SKU's down into platforms even if they were released across multiples until this generation, then they started combining the two because the numbers looked bigger and better. I believe the 360 version of Re5 outsold the PS3 edition for example but you'd never know because Capcom doesn't clearly state this sort of thing anymore and so it's harder to get that sort of context for example.

ORC on the other hand was slated to be a big success for Capcom in it's last few FY reports. They were expecting launch sales to exceed 2.5 million units in FY 2011-2012 when it was originally due at the end of 2011 (and now that it's slipped to the end of the FY it has to do 1.5 to 2 within 10 days to be a success for this year or it'll be split between this one and the next). If that happens maybe, it's possible, but with the fact that most companies track success against Metacritic and the like and the game is ranking a middling 5/50 rating overall I somehow doubt thats going to happen.

I know Capcom is looking at the big numbers and the dollar amounts first and not looking at tracking actual sales success on content, thats obviously coming second. They're tracking shorter development times to balance rising costs. They're focusing more on co-op and online. It's all clearly outlined in their FY reports each year (and has been since 2009). I think they company needs to stop and reflect on if thats the all the right approach . I hope the way ORC is going becomes a catlist for that very point but we'll have to wait and see.

[Pikminister]

People are forgetting context over concept, especially you Pik. Revelations needs to be looked at on the fact it's on a handheld platform that doesn't have the install base of a combined multiplatform release on the 360 and PS3. It was never going to sell 6 million+ units like RE5 did. But from most accounts for the platform it's on it'd be of it's top sellers... and if thats the case Capcom will be very happy because it's probably meeting or surpassing it's sales targets.

Well, I never said that Revelations would sell as good as the combined sales that RE5 had on PS3 or 360. Nor did I mentioned anything about the installed base of any console. So that's my excuse as to why nothing related to that was put in it's proper context - by me.

In replying to a post from Darkmoon, I said that both RE4 and Revelations successfully had horror elements mixed in with some of that action casuals love so much. But yet they both failed to come close to CoD sales numbers.

And that's not a bad thing in my book. But it is in Cap's book, though. They want those CoD numbers!

[Rombie]

Ah well, then thats cool. It just seemed as if you were saying there was some attempt to compare RE5 to Revelations in sales as apples and apples rather than apples and bananas. Its not easy to equate exact sales numbers there of course, but it is on a scale of success given the platform.

Thats kinda the point I neglected to make above though. As a single platform SKU it's like RE4 is still likely Capcom's biggest RE seller (the PS2 version sadly is the biggest single seller although thats harder to completely state because they don't break the numbers down like they used to as I mentioned) and it's likely if you combined all the versions of RE4 (GC, PS2, Wii) it's probably still the title thats sold the most overall units as well, just.

Maybe if I read between the lines on the original article this might be more what Capcom could settle on, making a main title that - while not CoD blockbuster selling - is still consistant with the high numbers coming from RE4 and RE5. And in that way it's an obvious truth that horror will forgo action. Because that was already happening.

But I don't think that is just what's being said. Sure he doesn't exactly know what is happening with RE6, but he is involved enough in the rest of the work in the franchise and knowing the in's and out's of the company's current goals that saying that survival horror titles are being dropped is a bigger deal.

Who knows, we'll probably see some clarification come in coming weeks or other franchise positioning statements especially with Captivate happening very shortly. But only if they think this has hurt the fanbase.

[Smiley]

Revelations is also doing well because the 3DS doesn't have much competition going against that title, and since the price drop of the hand held is less than a year after its release a lot of gamers were able to afford it.

[Rombie]

"Take it where you can get it." :p

I don't disagree that a lack of competition and a drop in price of the handheld would have helped. But it reviewed quite well and most people here seem happier with it (at least a greater majority than those who are happy with ORC by example) so I figure that probably also played into it a bit too. Maybe just a little ;p

Edit - I stand corrected on the price, missed the news on the backdown (and the price isn't reflected where I live).

[Vito]

Revelations is 40..

[Canas Renvall]

^ Yeah, Capcom listened to the major backlash and lowered the price back to the standard $40.