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View Full Version : Does Microsoft need the Resident Evil series and vice versa?



pulatte
03-16-2005, 07:48 PM
Well, I guess "need" is a little overboard. MS seems to be doing fine at the moment with the franchises they got right now. But still...as you know, RE4 is coming to the PS2 (and no one really owns the PC market so we can exclude that as competition...though I don't think a PC port is in the works...yet). So now the only other competitor who could actually profit from the series and hasn't yet is Microsoft.
You can't deny the fact that RE 4 is a success. It's currently touted as an early candidate for game of the year, and for some gamers, it's probably the only standout title for the rest of 2005.

So Nintendo has it's first party titles, the DS, and RE4, while PS2 has...well more game titles, a better handheld and RE4! ...But what does Xbox have? Other than Chaos Theory, I don't really see much of that "Halo 2-esque" potential in any of Xbox titles coming out this year (where's Doom 3 and Half-Life 2!?) ...It's one of the best piece of hardware out there now, and it seems to be running out of steam already. Microsoft really needs to get some killer titles announced right now, which--do you think--the RE series would help in that cause?

...Anyway, next question: earlier I mentioned RE 4 was a success...However I meant that critically. In terms of sales, it hasn't been too impressive...And you know why? It's because of poor business decisions! To be honest, I really think it was a blatantly horrible decision to put the RE series exclusively on GCN, and though the deal barely managed to last a year, it still should not have happened, especially on Capcom's part. I'm not completely sure about the sales of RE 4, but I heard they were lower than DMC 3's, which if you compared the equally accalimed RE 0 to the dismal failure that was DMC 2, you actually see just how much the casual gamer cares more about the platform a game is on, rather than the history and quality of it, and because of the cube's targeted demograph, consumers have steered away from RE 4. I have nothing against the cube, but it's just the contrast in demographs that's made the title suffer in sales. Now, finally Capcom has wised up and realized they could generate more revenue if they started making it a multi-platform series. And thus came the announcement that RE 4 would come to the PS2. However, now there's the problem of the PS2's limited graphical capabilities. I can image when it's ported, the PS2's version will be the least visually appealing. If it were on Xbox, however, they can probably beef it up even more and put some online component in there (yeah I know Sony can too, but they seem to be straying from that option as of late as neither DMC 3, Tekken 5, God of War OR Gt 4 have online capabilities).

So what do you guys think? do you think Microsoft and Capcom should get together and work out a deal or something?

P.S. I hope this all makes sense. I have terrible writing skills.

maohayato
03-17-2005, 01:11 PM
a port is still a port, as long as re4 is not rebuilt and optimized for the system it will not be a killer app.

gundamjehutykai
03-17-2005, 02:19 PM
Also, Aside from a scant few titles (metroid being one of them) japanese game companies put Japanese gamers first and think about the rest of the world later (particularly us poor guys stuck in europe).

Resident evil is just as big in japan as the rest of the world so capcom will look at the systems that are doing the best in japan, which the Xbox certainly is not!! also i don't think capcom supports the xbox at all in any region and thats unlikely to change. I know konami doesn't...

orka
03-17-2005, 02:44 PM
a port is still a port, as long as re4 is not rebuilt and optimized for the system it will not be a killer app.

I agree. Logically, all games should be designed with the Xbox in mind if console game developers really want a refined product.

Some producers understand this very well (Team Ninja, Bungie, etc.). But at the moment, most console games are still being designed with the PS2 in mind.

gundamjehutykai
03-17-2005, 02:51 PM
Bungie is owned by microsoft so they have to make games for the xbox whether they like it or not. I never did understand why the head of team ninja is so staunt in his support for the xbox even though the console is failing in his home country. I guess you can't help but admire him for it, i just want to know what posessed him to to such a thing in the first place.
In japanese companies view, a game for the xbox only will lose money since there aren't enough xbox owners in japan to warrent developing for it. hence why they go to the PS2 and, to a lesser extent, the GC.

and no games company cares for a refined product and it seem the general consumers don't wither, Why else would EA release a (insert generic sports title here) every year?

hyde69
03-17-2005, 02:53 PM
i believe when they started designing RE for this generation consoles they were thinking about the gamecube since Nintendo is japanese and xbox is not, like gundamjehuty said we come second.
and porting the RE series to pc would just make it easily to be hack.
xbox might have good hardware but i believe it dont got what it takes. "people"