Though Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 only shipped 3.5 million units by the end of the fiscal year on March 31st (after being projected to sell 4 million), it’s still aiming to ship 10 million units in its overall lifespan.
During Capcom’s investor Q&A session, it said the 3.5 million shipped already was a “solid start”. This same description was also given to unit sales for Monster Hunter Double Cross on the 3DS.
Capcom noted that “lifecycle for games is growing longer” so it’s not that big a deal that Resident Evil 7 failed to miss its projected shipment numbers. Furthermore it noted that digital sales were growing and they represented higher margins compared to physical retail copies.
Throughout their lifetimes, Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 have sold in the range of 7.5 million to 10 million units. Whether Resident Evil 7 gets there or not remains to be seen but Capcom is working on it. It recently delayed the free Not A Hero DLC in order to polish it further and will have more DLC in the coming months.