Originally posted by Andyfer_Ruu
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Pretty much around the release of RE5, the majority of the people interested in it were those who had played some if not all of the other games and knew the characters. Most new players, with the target marketing due to the evolution of the series would associate it as an action game (not a survival horror), OR would associate it with the films and quite a few of them were confused due to the use of already established characters (these would be the ones utterly uninterested in unlocking files, reading character bios), were unable to get used to the controller scheme and would return the games for full-refund.
When a game that is considered old, is ported and pushed out repeatedly - would a new consumer want to buy something that essentially is *not* new?
This is seen as a common issue with the majority of people on second-hand/pre-owned purchases, and in some cases re-releases.
In other words, even people not the sort to keep up with game companies can see that with the port to iPad with RE4, that the cash cow is being overmilked and this is also common with over-marketing and use of subtext tags on things such as say... a game "JUMPER - Based on the movie", if having characters of origin and/or modification from the films would achieve the same results.
In the end, people aren't sheep - although this type of marketing based on established series/franchise/brand-names worked in the past, it isn't working so much now which is why Indie games and developers that pay a bit more attention to those who have bought the games, merchandise and on the overall have been quite a large part of incoming profit from said releases - instead of sheer overuse to the point that "regular" people (i.e. not in-depth fans or gamers) can actually see it.
Sure, the RE4 formula worked a bit for RE5 but it had it's pros and it's cons from a general sales/marketing perspective (considering that a couple of local game stores' had more than thirty returns by new gamers that couldn't get into it (reasons mentioned before) within the release week, I don't think it's really appealing to new target audiences all that much) I can only wonder how much of a development, marketing money void a game with the film characters such as Alice would be.
I could continue on, but it'd most likely turn into quite a rant.
Too long? In the end, I realize that it's about money however - if it continues in such an obvious way, then it could end up as a slippery slope type of situation.
I mean really, they're trying to appeal to new target audiences - for the most part, that aren't interested when they can be playing a "true" action game, or another horror game. If it's not going to appeal to new audiences, to the old audience/fanbase, "outside" audience are avoiding it due to the cash-cow issue that is so blatantly obvious even to this group, then what's it going to become? Hell, it's not even a singular country, as DM brought up - the films' are too Western for Japan (I also bet that after Afterlife, that the franchise name being also attached to the films - permitted by the company will also make the Japanese audience feel a bit offended if Tokyo is actually included in it, just as those who are from and/or live in Las Vegas and other areas, were offended when they managed to screw things up there in Extinction!) - if it's not going to be appealing to new audiences, then it either needs to be changed - not necessarily the games but they're trying far too much.
Capcom's problem is that when it targets groups, it's either too far toward one group or another. If a better compromise was available (such as optional camera angles, multi-player instead of forced styles, optional controller scheme - when we KNOW that it's possible to do), then they could probably appeal a lot better then they are now.
For example, Square-Enix has their own cash cows. Due to the popularity of their series, and including cameos within a joint production with Disney - Kingdom Hearts, increased the fanbase. By making Dissidia a fighting game, with characters and a little bit of history on them (without having to know what's happened in the games completely) it was appealing to a fair amount of old and new target audiences with a high amount of sales and/or profit.
Of course, in the long run I'd prefer that the films are separate from the games for a fair amount of reasons.
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