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Resident Evil Revelations’ producer Masachika Kawata recently spoke with Gamasutra in an interview regarding the future of the Resident Evil franchise and if there’s any room in the market for true survival horror entries as opposed to big action-oriented ones. Unfortunately, after hearing what the producer had to say, fans aren’t really going to be gathering together in joy to sing “Kumbaya” at some bonfire.
After looking at sales and other related marketing data available for the survival horror genre (consisting of, you know, true survival horror titles), Kawata feels that “the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell.” He then goes on to squeeze lemons into the open wounds of many RE fans by stating that “a ‘survival horror’ Resident Evil doesn’t seem like it’d be able to sell those kind of numbers.”
And as we all know, the series’ dive into action territory really did all start with Resident Evil 4. Despite being one of the finest titles of all time, Leon’s second main outing took the once pure survival horror series in a more action-oriented direction. This new style for the series was even more profound with the release of Resident Evil 5. Speaking in regards to this, Kawata states that: “And I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further. And that’s exactly one of the reasons that Revelations is the way it is.”
Resident Evil Revelations brought players back into the “world of survival horror,” but it still played host to action-oriented mechanics and elements like the ones seen in Resident Evils 4 and 5. It was a mixture of both styles, and it ended up being quite a success, despite not being a pure 100% survival horror title.
Then we have the most recent release, Operation Raccoon City. And while bringing back the beloved rotting zombies, and other classic BOWs, ORC is a squad-based experience that’s even more action-packed than RE 5. So, could the main entries in the series like Revelations and numbered entries be allowed to keep the series’ identity, while spin-offs like ORC can go on to appeal to the bigger (Call of Duty) market? Kawata seems to think so:
“So we have our numbered series, and we can say we have a more adventure-oriented version, like a Revelations-style game. And we also have Operation: Raccoon City, which is a third-person shooter.
“So I think that by extending the market in this sense, we can still have the numbered titles keep their identity about what Resident Evil is supposed to be, but still expand and hit other markets as well.”
One thing’s for certain, though, especially considering Kawata’s affinity towards a more action-heavy RE: I’m sure glad he’s not heading Resident Evil 6 in any way (no offense, of course). Hell, even Kawata goes on to talk about the fact that whatever happens with RE 6 is out of his control:
“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. But my impression is that Resident Evil 4 and 5 aren’t shooters, per se.”
What do you think about all this? I’m sure you all have some very decorated comments to leave below concerning this. So, shoot!
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