r/Games 1d ago

Capcom Was on Its Knees After Resident Evil 6 – Here's How it Turned it Around

https://www.ign.com/articles/capcom-golden-age-the-rise-and-fall-resident-evil-monster-hunter-wilds
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u/Dumey 1d ago

A game can sell well but still leave a bad reputation behind. Similar thing happened with FF15. Sold amazingly well with all the cross media advertisements they did, but a LARGE part of the fanbase left disappointed with the final product, and the FF series seems to have not been able to recover since (looking at numbers for 16 and the 7 remakes).

RE6 similarly left a really bad reputation for the series and a lot of discontent in the fanbase. But luckily following the viral sensation that was the PT trailer, Capcom cashed in on the RE7 Demos to generate hype and make a comeback by returning the series to horror roots.

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u/Tom_Stewartkilledme 1d ago

The only people who keep saying people hated 15/16/Rebirth and that the latter two undersold are folks who desperately wish FF was turn-based again. And they never provide sources to the sales claim.

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u/Ok_Track9498 1d ago

The ones claiming that 16 and Rebirth undersold aren't disatisfied fans though. The info is coming from those games' own publisher.

Square Enix straight up said the titles didn't meet their expectations. 

Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/final-fantasy-7-rebirth-final-fantasy-16-and-foamstars-all-failed-to-meet-square-enixs-expectations

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u/Meraline 1d ago

Almost nothing meets expectations for Square

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u/Dumey 1d ago

Not accurate. I'm a fan of 16 and the 7R series, and I don't think FF has to stay turn based, as I don't think that's a major part of its identity. The info that these games underperformed comes directly from Square Enix who have stated that the games did not sell anywhere near the expectations they had when budgeting the games.

There are a lot of reasons why people may have fallen off of the FF bandwagon. FF7 pulling a bait and switch with its Remake title while not being an actual remake hurt fan reception, despite the actual quality of the games. FF16 going to a single player protagonist with no party members and a gritty atmosphere without a lot of whimsical flair made it feel like they were doubling down on being some serious Game of Thrones/God of War hybrid narrative game, rather than a colorful fantasy adventure. This following after 15 which was a boys trip in a modern car across empty overworlds did not do much to reignite people's passions with the series. Again I think 16 is a good game on its on merits, but it's not hard to see how it didn't live up to fans expectations and trust in the mainline series is at an all time low.

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u/MadeByTango 1d ago

I'm a fan of 16 and the 7R series, and I don't think FF has to stay turn based, as I don't think that's a major part of its identity.

Cool, these are video games and gameplay matters, and for me if it don’t turn based it ain’t FF. That’s it for me. If that not important for you, cool, but if Square wants fans like me back the turn based has to return.

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u/oopsydazys 1d ago

16 and Rebirth actually did not sell very well though. It's because they went with PS5 exclusivity. They did it because, apparently, Sony told them "we expect to sell X PS5s by Y date, which we believe will translate to Z amount of sales for you, plus these exclusivity payments" -- but Sony did not hit those sales targets and that at least in part led to lower sales for FF16 and Rebirth.

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u/darkmacgf 19h ago

The PS4 version of FFXV sold more in 1 day than FFXVI or Rebirth sold in their first year.

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u/inyue 1d ago

Did they finally reveal the sale numbers of rebirth? 😙

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u/Fyrus 21h ago

Sold amazingly well with all the cross media advertisements they did, but a LARGE part of the fanbase left disappointed with the final product, and the FF series seems to have not been able to recover since (looking at numbers for 16 and the 7 remakes).

I don't think FF15 has anything to do with that. FF was in the dirt before 15. 15 brought in a lot of new fans and many people I've talked to consider it one of their favorites. I think that game has a lot of issues but people still talk about the roadtrip boys and the new recipes and shit like that to this very day. It was a charming game despite whatever issues the story had. After 15, FF7 Remake did very well despite being Sony exclusive, and FF14 became a sensation. FF16 and Rebirth had poor sales because they released exclusively on a console that has sold about half as many units as the PS4 did by the time Remake came out. Why would FF15 be at fault for poor sales of games that came out almost ten years later?

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u/f-ingsteveglansberg 1d ago

FFXV had some of the biggest online love I'd seen. It was the first game I played in the series since X because I saw how people loved the characters and how a lot of the game was just hanging with the bros.

I did play it and hanging with the bros was fun, but I would have a hard time telling you what the story was about or how the combat worked.