Recent entries in the Resident Evil series have disappointed some fans, especially the ones with rosy glasses that let them pretend that RE 1-3 were the best games ever. Those fans aren't going to like what Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata told Gamasutra, even if they had already suspected it to be true.
"Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games] ... the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell," he said. "A 'survival horror' Resident Evil doesn't seem like it'd be able to sell those kind of numbers."
Since he's not working on Resident Evil 6, Kawata admits that he can't really speak to what that game will accomplish. "But I don't think that it necessarily has to go all the way in that [action-heavy] direction, the Call of Duty direction," he said. "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."
To be sure, they're not, though Operation Raccoon City (which we enjoyed—check out our review) certainly is. Kawata said Capcom can explore purer action or horror genres in non-numbered titles like ORC and Revelations.
But as far as the core titles (like 6) go: "RE4 started in that direction, and RE5 kept going in that direction," he said. "And I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further."
Is the death of survival horror your greatest fear come to life, or do you agree that action is a better fit for RE—if only because it'll sell more that way? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter.
