That PR comment by Capcom baffles me. Why would a company prefer lower sales over lukewarm critical reception?
Having played only a subsection of both Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7, I had more fun with 6. A positive subjective review (that does not focus on the features and functionality of the product) does not necessarily make a better reviewed game better for a consumer.
P.S. I love the SEGA kart racing games, but I have no intention of getting Sonic Team Racing. The Sonic IP is just mediocre and having all of SEGA’s classic IPs collecting dust while Sonic gets a new game is just a slap in the face.
Having a good critical reception could ensure word of mouth to get around and could see a sales resurgence some time later. That was the case with the original Valkyria Chronicles. It was passed over during it’s original release and didn’t find it’s audience until a year later. It’s also the story of most Platinum games.
The critical reception isn’t as important as how mainstream a title is in the sales department. I don’t know anyone that owns any tactical RPGs outside of XCOM. I also don’t know anyone that owns anything Platinum has worked on except Metal Gear Raiden or whatever it is called and that is only because they know Metal Gear Solid.
A game that is well received with lukewarm sales usually sees larger sales with a sequel. Games that sell well but are poorly received usually have the opposite happen.
I think the games have to stand on their own merits, so better sales for a sequel are not guaranteed by better critical reception. However, great sales are not an indication of quality either.
The amount of people who played the sequel but not the original is pretty sad. A ton of people in this thread missed out on the better game.
I tried to get into Automata but I couldn’t and I loved the original. Then again, Yoko Taro games are pretty hit and miss for me too. Drakengard 3 is one of the shittiest games I played last-gen and it ran at an eternal > 10 frames per second.
I loved the story and characters in the original Nier. I thought the characters and the story in its sequel were terrible. I wanted to like it but I just couldn’t get into it, and I gave it a pretty big chunk of my time to sway my opinion but that never happened so I dropped the game.
Did you pickup Fighting EX Layer HB? Let me know if you want to run some sets sometime against my ALLENNNNN SNYDERRRRRR
I haven’t picked up yet. I dropped a lot of cash on a new PC recently so I haven’t gotten any new game releases. I’ll definitely get it once I stabilize my budget.
Dead Cells is finally officially released and also finally beatable. i beat it today. i saw the credits roll.
alotta folks are not gonna figure out how to beat it to see the ending.
In the case of this situation, having great sales is great in the short term but if a franchise continues to be less than stellar objectively or subjectively (doesn’t matter so long as the majority thinks this) then usually that’s going to kill an IP in the long run. The inverse is also true in that a franchise that is objectively or subjectively amazing then that can help bring sales for future games in the series and it can continue to grow.
That’s the theory anyway and that’s how it’s supposed to work but there are always outliers.
