Resident Evil 6 has been released to some very mixed opinions on the game from both fans and reviewers alike. The game has gotten some decent reviews, but also some very low scores as well (Gamespot gave the game a 4.5 out of 10). Fans have not been kind to the game as well, the Metacritc users score sitting at a .5 and .7, which is pretty bad considering it is lower than Mass Effect 3′s user score where fans purposely tired to bomb the user score.
However, today it was announced that Resident Evil 6 has shipped 4.5 million copies in a matter of days. This does not mean copies sold, 4.5 million shipped means that is how many copies have been sent out to stores across the world. Still that is pretty good news for Capcom who has spent the past few days defending their gameplay design choices; basically stating that they wanted to have the game appeal to bigger more casual audiences. The funny thing is that to this day the Resident Evil franchise has sold some 50 million games, that does not sound to me like a franchise that is having trouble selling copies.
Capcom, director Hiroyuki Kobayashi tried to explain the thinking behind Resident Evil 6:
“With Resident Evil, we’re trying to be as inclusive as possible. We’re trying to reach as many people as possible. That makes it hard to maintain a horror feel to it when you’re trying to be inclusive. It is a challenge. I’m not afraid to admit that. We’re trying to see what kind of action we can include in the game and still maintain the horror sensibilities. Trying to blend those together is not an easy thing to do. I believe you can do it,”
“We’re making games and we need to have mass-market appeal in order to survive. How far do we go into horror before we lose the support of the average player? How far are we going to lessen the horror elements at the risk of losing core fans, including Resident Evil fans?”
Personally I have not played Resident Evil 6 yet so I can’t say that all these negative reviews from fans or gaming websites are right. But I do understand where the anger is coming from, having your favorite franchise change from horror to action oriented is something that would piss me off too. I just hope the makers of Dead Space 3, Visceral Games learn from this and don’t make some of the same mistakes that Capcom has made with the Resident Evil fans.
