Capcom Disappointed With Darkside Chronicles Sales

[Stu]

Before (oh, too late!) people start falling over themselves to bash the sales, is that 16,000 in France alone though?

[Gradon]

Most likely Europe.

[Grem]

You could predict DSC's low sales since the game was announced. UC was meh and it sold well because of the success of RE4 wii edition.
So, people didn't want to play a bad RE again and didn't even bother to give DSC a try.

I'm sure RE6 will sell pretty bad because RE5 was such a commercial success, but, at the same time, it disappointed a lot of gamers.

Guys, this is the end of RE IMO

[Dark_Chris]

well RE5 sold more 5 millions units and not every gamer was disappointed so I'm pretty sure RE6 will sell around 3-4 millions too

[DeadArtist]

I agree with ZomBD. If they want a hit, bring a NEW game out á la Resident Evil 4 and they got themselves a hit! This just seems lazy, really.

Although I can imagine that Darkside is actually better then the Umbrella Chronicles. Have to play for myself.

[djepic112]

I want the wii and all its kiddiness to die.

[Karui]

Word

[Carnivol]

I would agree with you if we were speaking about any other type of medium but, in my experience, commercial success and critical acclaim have often coincided with each other in the video game industry. Of course, there are also a handful examples that would go against my logic, especially some of my personal favorites. Though, I suppose, at the end of all things, it's a matter of opinion, but that's how I feel. For video games, anyway. Movies and books? Good God, that's a story for another day.

Problem is that games seem to be in a USE AND TOSS pit of some sort. Books and movies (and music for that matter) can still be acquired, legally, often long after their release and in perfectly new and fresh (re-)prints, without relying on the second hand market (worst case scenario, digital distribution is still there to save the day too - for those who're not so materialistic). Games, regardless of whether they're good or not, are being sold like fashionable items (always with a "this is trendy NOW"-label written on them). If you want yesterday's fashion, your only choice is to dig around the garbage bin behind the store or to seek out the Salvation Army's second hand clothing store.
(Only exception to this seems to be first party Nintendo software, which somehow mysteriously sell, regardless of it being new or old... guess actual quality lurking behind a solid "household" name helps.)


Sadly... in most cases, piracy seems like the most reliable solution to get a hold of older titles that aren't "fashionable," and just like used game sales -> The publisher/developer doesn't see a single cent of profit from that transaction, while the way the used games market currently works makes the stores doing it have an absurd profit from it. A few digital distribution solutions on the PC has made it possible for older "out-of-print" games to be purchased (with parts of that money crawling directly to the owner's account), but those solutions have yet to prove themselves on consoles... the digital distribution of retail games on them are limited to only late re-releases of the big titles, with currently no attempts at re-releasing old games at a budget price (probably all thanks to how the big console manufacturers have to rely on game stores for hardware sales and the game stores don't really get much money, if any at all at times, from hardware sales)

Before (oh, too late!) people start falling over themselves to bash the sales, is that 16,000 in France alone though?

Beats me. I wouldn't be surprised if it's France Only numbers (which then wouldn't really be that bad), but I guess it could just as well be Europe numbers (but why is a French distributor being all pissy with full Euro numbers if his area is France? Seeing as Capcom's main EU office is located in the UK and not France)

[Stu]

Yes, the Wii and all it's "kiddiness", despite it being the best console for Resident Evil fans and pretty much the best console for horror games this generation.

Keep spinning that line.

Most likely Europe.

I can't possibly imagine it being that low for the whole of Europe.

[ElusionM]

Hm, if they keep up with the PS3/360 consoles of the year etc, that just might mean we'll see more REs on the PS3/360 and not many at all now on the Wii.

Just do a freaking classics remake set and you'll see if it sells or not, dammit.

Really, they can go by sets. RE1/2 and a RE3/CVX, sell for about $80. (I like to dream, yes, but prices doesn't matter, even if it's past $100 for two remakes a pack, we all know we'll but them, but it's the remakes themselves we can only dream of).

And what ever happened to RESP? If it dropped development, lame...

[Stu]

Beats me. I wouldn't be surprised if it's France Only numbers (which then wouldn't really be that bad), but I guess it could just as well be Europe numbers (but why is a French distributor being all pissy with full Euro numbers if his area is France? Seeing as Capcom's main EU office is located in the UK and not France)

It would not surprise me in the slightest to see Capcom distance themselves from Frenchy's opinion at some point. As you've touched on, Capcom France are hardly going to be the be all and end all of company policies.

To be honest i can't understand why anyone (particularly a Capcom staff member, no matter his irrelevance) would be going overboard with the game's sales when it hasn't even launched in one of the world's biggest territories yet!

[Alexia_Ashford]

Well, in comparison, when I looked around for the game in November, I couldn't see it anywhere, not in any Wii chart at all. Couldn't even see it anywhere in the Preowned section. I remember when UC came out it was in a lot of places, and I even found Preowned copies of UC in Game, still nothing of DSC.

(I personally think UC is a better game).

[Nemesiscv]

This is the number for France only, not for Europe.
If you want to read the entire interview, check Gamekult:

http://www.gamekult.com/articles/A0000081940/

But it's in French!

[Sunglasses]

Stu is right, 16k copies is France alone, because DSC sold over 80k across PAL regions according with VGcharz.

But wait, how the problem can be the Wii since Darkside Cronicles is selling in North America more or less like UC while it seems the game had shitty sales just in Europe?
Who is actually handling the marketing campaign and the distribution for every Capcom game accross PAL regions? HALIFAX for the Europe and THQ for Australia and New Zeland! Their fault, it's not just the Wii!
Another thing which makes me think this, is the fact that Capcom Europe announced just 2 days ago that Nintendo will handle the distribution of Monster Hunter 3 in Europe and Australia, and not Halifax and THQ.

Believe me, behind this mess there is more than what that dude over Capcom France told us.

[Grem]

Yep, the Capcom guy says that the sales aren't that bad for France only, but it's much less than what they expected. It's still a commercial failure, though.