‘Resident Evil 7’ Will Appeal To The ‘Core Fanbase’
Capcom is hoping to get things back on the right track with Resident Evil 7.
The developer disappointed quite a few fans when Resident Evil 6 hit retail last year. Some reviewers described the outing as “stilted and “tedious” while others took issue with the game’s reliance on backtracking. It definitely wasn’t the franchise’s finest hour.
Former Capcom marketing boss Michael Pattison recently told MCV that the developers have taken fan criticisms into consideration while crafting Resident Evil 7. Instead of putting the focus on gunplay, Pattison said the company is taking the game back to it survival horror roots.
He explained to the website:
With Resident Evil 6 specifically, we probably put too much content in there, there were comments from consumers that said it felt bloated. The Leon missions went down very well, and because we did Resident Evil Revelations on 3DS, there was a cry out for us to focus our attention on survival horror, rather than be too many things to all people. You’ll find where we go next will likely be more targeted at our core fanbase.
Pattison said that Capcom paid very close attention to the Resident Evil 6 review scores. Although the developers seemed interested in taking the franchise in a new direction, the fans obviously weren’t impressed with some of the changes.
One complaint players had with the last installment of the long-running series were the shifts in gameplay. Each of the different single-player campaigns had a different look and feel. This may have allowed for different experiences, but it clearly didn’t settle well with fans.
As a result of the poor response, Resident Evil 6 sales fell short of expectations. In order to bring folks back into the fold, developers decided to pour over the reviews to see what they got wrong.
“There was some great positives out of that, but it was a mixed bag, as we saw from the review scores. We have got to take that on-board, we can’t ignore that, and we have to take that onto the next game when we make the next Resident Evil,” Pattison said.
Were you disappointed with Resident Evil 6? Are you hoping the developers at Capcom take the series back to its survival horror roots with Resident Evil 7?
[Image via Capcom]
