Resident Evil 7 is dramatic reinvention of the series, and a complete departure from the previous few entries in the franchise. It is a superlative game, a stellar return to the series’ roots, and the kind of game that fan have been asking for for years to come. That’s why it is also important that it do well, so that Capcom understands there is a market for high budget AAA games.
And while worldwide Resident Evil 7 seems to be doing just fine, in Japan, it seems to have underperformed terribly. While Resident Evil 7 still topped sales charts in Japan last week, per Media Create (via NeoGAF), its first week sales of just a little over 187,000 units come far below Resident Evil 6‘s 635,000 units sold in the first week itself. This is not the kind of message you want to send Capcom, guys.
The only hope we have here is that word of mouth around Resident Evil 7 remains strong, and the game continues to sell in the weeks and moths to come. Resident Evil 7 apart, the Top 20 is comprised of a lot of the evergreens, including Pokemon Sun/Moon, Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS, Minecraft for PS Vita, and Yokai Watch 3. On the hardware front, the PS4 comes in on top yet again, with 40,000 units sold. The aging 3DS manages a healthy and respectable second place, with almost 25,000 units sold.
I hope my fellow Japanese gamers pick up Resident Evil 7, however- under a fifth of the sales put forth by Resident Evil 6, which had a misguided action game focus, and almost brought the series to ruin, is not the kind of financial reinforcement that Capcom needs for this series right now.