Recently, SEGA expressed their belief that Mature-rated titles on the Wii were a gamble which simply did not pay off, thus leading to no such titles planned for the foreseeable future. And having moved only 16,000 copies of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for the same platform over three weeks’ time, it appears that Capcom is ready to take a similar stance, instead shifting their focus elsewhere.
Antoine Seux, the Director General of Capcom France, recently spoke with French gaming site Gamekult on the matter in a lengthy interview. Via Google translator, he notes that by comparison, Resident Evil 4 sold 140,000 copies when it was launched back in June of 2007, and believes that the problem is a change in audience.
“One feels that there is a problem very clear on this style of game on the Wii, where gamers have obviously moved on. Resident Evil 4 on Wii worked well, but [it was released] when the market had nothing!”
He adds that development on the Wii “was very difficult, with an oversupply [of games] and a gamer market that has radically changed. [So-called “gamer’s games”] are selling less and less on the console, [be it] MadWorld or Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop or House of the Dead: Overkill.”
“The customer of [the Wii] has turned into something [of a] much broader audience. It is a disappointment,” Seux said, adding that he believes that the only way for games to get noticed on the platform is to give them “massive advertising campaigns,” such as those seen for New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
Since the success of Resident Evil 4 and the prequel to The Darkside Chronicles, The Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom has had a difficult time of things on the Wii. Zack & Wiki, the Wii version of PlayStation 2 title Okami, and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, a version of the Xbox 360 hit using the engine RE4 was built on, have done little to set hearts aflutter.
So, where then does Capcom intend to place its focus? Where else?
“This is the year of the emergence of so-called ‘new console generation’,” Seux said, referring to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. “The Wii is still an important part of sales, but growth is on both [Sony and Microsoft’s] platforms. The Wii console is very much a family commitment… for us, Capcom, the future is the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.”
Personally speaking, I enjoy rail shooters, and have been enjoying The Darkside Chronicles. That said, even I have to admit that there seems to be a bit of an over-saturation of the genre on the market; I passed over Dead Space: Extraction and House of the Dead: Overkill in favor of RE:TDC. I imagine there are others out there who made their own choices as well.
But despite Seux’s words, I wouldn’t worry too much about Capcom’s presence on the Wii just yet; aside from Mega Man 10 in March, we will be getting the exclusive Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars at the end of the month, and the company has come way too far since changing systems for Monster Hunter 3. If those two games do well, then perhaps Capcom will get a better idea of what people are after.
