Resident Evil Requiem's 5m sales: How Capcom did it

This week, we dive into the world of AI recommendations. High guard is officially over. 10-centent faces US scrutiny. And Resident Evil Recreum was a sales triumph. Hello and welcome to the Game Business Show. In just a little moment, we're going to have GameSpot host, writer, producer, and podcaster Lucy James here to talk with us on a couple of subjects. But before Lucy joins us, let's dive into some stories, shall we? Uh we love to do this every time. Um go through the big stories of the last week and and this is a new story from just yesterday and it's quite a concerning one. According to the FT, US officials have postponed a meeting to decide whether 10 cents investment in US video game companies poses security risk. The meeting is just going ahead, but they've had to postpone it. Um of course, Tencent is a big investor in Epic Games. It also owns League of Legends company Riot Games. Those are US companies. If the US decides to act, it could force Tencent to divest its stakes in US video game companies. The US is concerned about the data these companies are

collecting from US players. Basically, now that means it's not just uh US companies they're worried about. Obviously, Supercell is, for example, a big company in Finland, but a lot of US players play some of its games. You know, they've got investments in so many companies around the world. We know the US is very much willing to act on these things. It did so with Tik Tok quite famously. Last year, the US government also added Tencent to a blacklist of companies it believed was linked to the Chinese military, which Tencent said it believes that inclusion was a mistake. I mean, it's quite a concerning development. This, particularly for 10-centent, but also all the companies it's invested in. There's loads of them. Perhaps it's not a top priority for the US government right now. There's a lot going on, but there are a lot of companies that have 10-centent backing. It's going to be a story to watch very carefully. And speaking of 10-centent backing, Highguard is officially over. Um, the online shooting game goes offline on March 12th, just next week. Um, 2 million people have played the game since its launch, according to developer Wildlife Entertainment. But a lot of those players have just just

left. They didn't stick around. The money isn't there to continue. Games like this kind of require patience. We've seen it before. I've even seen it at the Game Awards before with the finals. It came out, boomed it, did really, really well, and then sort of faded away, but the developer, you know, got the funding and the backing to keep pushing it, and eventually it became profitable. That is not going to be the story for High Guard. the money folks involved it which include Tencent clearly feel it's not worth uh the investment. It has had a lot of backlash to the game quite bizarrely frankly. Um it's a shame and the internet will inevitably do what it always does and use this as an example as to why live service games just don't work even though there are plenty of examples of ones that do. Obviously it's very difficult to succeed in this space. They probably made a number of mistakes. But I don't think the game was that bad. I think it had something about it and a bit more time and a bit more patience. Maybe the story could have been different, but alas, that's not to be. Let's do a bit more of a positive story. Um, because it's the Pokemon's 30th anniversary, and last week the Pokémon Company announced the next Pokémon generation, Winds and Waves. If you

don't know what Pokémon Generations are, every 3 to four years, a new Pokémon comes out, which has new characters, new worlds, and new Pokémon in it. This one's got a 5year gap, though. This be 5 years between Winds and Waves. It's not coming out until 2027. It's exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2. It's the biggest gap a Pokémon games had um since the series began. The games are able to take a bit longer now because of how Pokémon Company and Game Freak have been able to diversify the franchise. The series isn't quite was reliant on those big generational games. Um in the past, each new Pokemon generation because it brought in those new Pokémon and new characters and new worlds. They were used as the basis for anime shows. It was used for the basis of the cards. It was used for the Pokémon World Championships, the big popular popular esports tournament. That's not entirely the case anymore. Um there are other games that can sort of bring those things in and um the World Championships being based around the upcoming Pokémon Champions game. So Game Freak can take a bit longer on this one, which might benefit the game technically. Actually, the last big Pokémon generation really

suffered from technical issues. Pokémon fans aren't missing out, though. There's a big Pokémon game coming out. Well, right now Pokémon um has got some great reviews. Um, maybe I'll chat with Lucy a little bit later to see if she's played the game. I'm interested in that one. Um, our next story is is Splash Damage. UK studio Splash Damage has acquired Game P from movate developer Jagex. Game P is behind the cult hardcore survival game Scum. It's really hardcore this game. Really requires a lot of uh a lot of a lot of it's it's it's a very very difficult game. Um, the deal is part of a effort to combine slash damages, multiplayer, and first-person shooter expertise with gameplay's open world survival and live service capabilities. Scum is a popular game. It's done quite well, but it sits outside of Jagex's core Runescape focus. So, I can see why Jagex felt that it wasn't necessary to have it anymore. Um, now Splash Damage was formerly part of 10 cent. Um, but it was bought by Ammona Capital in September last year. The studio then had a restructure in November last year after losing a big contract, but it's clearly a studio that's still going places. It's still investing. So, that's

positive. And guess interesting acquisition and I've seen that game. It is I I played at GDC last year. It's it's it's not for me, but uh I can see why people like it. Um sticking with the UK because this is a subject that I find quite uh it's important to me. I think in the Insomnia Gaming Festival, which was due to take place in April in the UK, has been cancelled due to reduced investment in live events from major tech and hardware brands. Um ticket holders will get refunds. Um, Insomnia ceased in 2024. If you don't know what that is, it's an esports e like LAN um based event series that existed for years and years and years and years, but it stopped in 2024. Um, a consortium of companies tried to resurrect it for 2026, but it hasn't worked out. The UK event scene has almost completely collapsed now. So, um, EGX, which is event that I used to be part of and I was very fond of. Um, it's now part of MCM Comic-Con still exists. MCM Comic-Con do some game stuff, but it's very much just a section within Comic-Con now. um to the to the moon expo ex exhibition which was an event a

new company tried to launch last year that was an absolute disaster. Obviously games London's coming up. There's some interesting things going on there but generally speaking there's not a lot of investment and support for video game events in the UK at the moment or and it'll be interesting to see whether or not there ever will be again. My next news story, New York Attorney General Latita James has filed a lawsuit against Valve alleging that loot boxes in Counterstrike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 on glorfully encourage miners to gamble. That's an interesting one. this because it's another loot box case. Uh loot box cases have been going on for a while now. Oddly, video game industry, so companies like EA in particular has been fighting them in a lot of countries. Um win these cases quite a lot. They're not classed as gambling, but this is a this is another one for the industry to face. It's always a concern for the games industry because they're worried if they lose these cases, it sets precedents. A lot of those games aren't actually for miners. But I do think, you know, loot boxes is a I I've said this before, I'll say it again. whether or not it's gambling or not, I kind of think it's irrelevant. We just need to make sure that we're doing our best to protect players, make sure that they're they know what they're

getting. We're not manipulating them in any way. I think that's the important thing. And if we can do that, then, you know, whether they're gambling or not, I think that's the right thing to do. Um, and I'll end with one story where there's nothing really to say about it other than it's a big story. And if I didn't mention it, it would be a really odd thing to do. Paramount is now expected to buy Warner Brothers, of course. Um, you may have seen this. Netflix backed out of the deal last week after Paramount made what was considered a better offer. Netflix said, "Well, we're out then." There's no update what this means for video games. There really isn't. Um there's a lot of conversations around what the um between Paramount and Warner Brothers. There's been mentions of how synergies and how things might merge together a little bit, but games isn't really part of that conversation. Games is such a small part of both Paramount and Warner Brothers's business really. Um but they both do still have do have games teams. They are both making big budget games. So you would expect maybe both departments to come together in some way, but it's pure speculation at this point. I wouldn't be surprised, frankly, if the acquisition didn't happen at all at this rate. But yes, obviously that's a big thing and it

will have repercussions on the video games industry. What those will be, we we do not know at the moment. Now, if you enjoyed that little news rundown, I do something similar every Monday morning. It's called the game business micro, but it's just for paid subscribers of the game business. So what I do is I go through the key stories. I pick a couple to say something about and it's designed to be a short, sharp, sort of useful recap of what's going on in the world of video games. It's normally around 15 minutes, sometimes a bit longer. Paid subscribers also get a monthly report from me and you get a chance to come along to our event as well, The Game Business Live. No extra cost. That's in LA in June, June 8th in particular. And we also do the occasional bonus interview and thing for subscribers, too. So, if that appeals to you or you just like this show so much and want to help it keep going, please do head to the gamebus.com. Uh, we'd love to have you as one of our premium subscribers if you're interested. Anyway, enough of that. Lucy James is here to join us. Hello, Lucy. Welcome to the show.
Hello. Thanks for having me.
What's going on in your world? What's new?
Ooh, it's GDC next week. So, finalizing

the schedule for that. Making sure that we've got all the appointments that we want. Strange year, I think, for GDC as it was for DICE a little bit. Uh, a lot of people don't necessarily want to come to America. The festival of gaming is very expensive to come to and no one has any money.
Classic games industry problems. Let's suppose
I think it's got it's got I've spoken about this before. It's got two big problems that aren't really of its own making. Like I know there's the costs and San Francisco and all that kind of stuff which puts some people off. But obviously the first problem is international attendees not wanting to come which is nothing to do with GDC. And the other thing is the Californian sort of video game industry being in rapid decline. You sort of have those sort of two situ and that's not I don't know how GDC solve those existential problems. Um but um but they know what people are still going. I've got
people are still going.
I've got a schedule. Um I sort of support the event.
What have you been reading lately? You've been reading Shri's uh PC.
Yes. Woke up to Shrier's PC uh

PlayStation game article. spoke I was talking to him yesterday um for a video for GameSpot about PlayStation closing down Bluepoint, what this could mean for Bend and Haven and Nixie and he was like, "Well, I might have something about the PlayStation PC side of it." And then yeah, the next day he puts it out. So yeah, just reading up about Sony no longer plans to release big PS5 games on PC. And as a PC gamer now, silence me.
Well, it's a weird thing. every time PlayStation release a game on PC, some of them do quite well.
Um, but most of them actually haven't done that well at all. Like I'm just going through some of the ampair statistics here, which is player numbers. Like Spider-Man 2 did
when that came out was just over a year ago now. That did 260,000 in its first players in its first month, which is
Spider-Man. And you think, and you don't get me wrong, these are ports and stuff. They came out long after the PS5. Maybe if they day and dated it, it'll be a different situation, which they won't do

because it will hurt PS5. There's a lot of investment going into getting these games working. Um, some of them have done all right. Kosushima did like, you know, 700,000 and whatever in its first month and things like that. But I can you can see that those sorts of games, they've always been quite PlayStation friendly, those sort of games.
Yes.
I think it depends. There's so much conversation around this is what market is it for. You look again like Ghost of Tsushima has a slightly broader maybe even slightly Asian audience that um uh that maybe Spider-Man 2 doesn't. Um but and that benefit that will benefit being on PC because there are all these you know a lot of those markets and PC is a major platform and there'll be some games which are a lot more maybe US or UK or European based which were more console orientated where perhaps it doesn't make so much sense. I don't think it ever made sense to just put all your games onto whatever platform just because you can. I mean, I don't think it's a good thing to do obviously, but we'll talk about this. We talk about Resident Evil in a bit,
but sometimes, you know, it's just worth going actually, does it work? Is it

worth the money putting it on there? Um, and with PlayStation, obviously, putting their games on PC potentially hurt sales of PS5 and particularly when you've got the potential the next Xbox will be able to play Steam games. So, the next Xbox will start playing PlayStation first party titles. Uh, it becomes a thing. And obviously games like Hell Divers 2 did incredibly well on PC. So I think they probably just going to take a slightly more strategic approach to what they put on it, but you were telling me earlier as well that you've been reading about The Sims.
Yeah. I don't know how much you follow The Sims.
I don't follow The Sims. I do sometimes catch up with the Sims team at like Summer GameFest or whatever and have a little bit of a chat about it.
I saw you there at one point, didn't I?
Yeah. The Sims 4 is in a very interesting stage of its life. So I'm a lifelong Sims player. I but I I I'm not a consistent player, I will say. I kind of there'll be expansion packs and such that I will dip in and out of, but I always keep an eye out because I think as a phenomenon, as a video game, as a franchise, The Sims is absolutely fascinating, and it's also opened doors for so many people to play and get involved in video games and like be a

form of self-exression. There's been a lot of interesting movements in the Sims 4 space recently because of the sale of EA. The Sims has always been a very inclusive space and uh its fans are very worried about the new owners of EA and thinking that maybe some of that will be gone from the Sims or will be muted in some way. Uh so a lot of the key they have this kind of creator program where they'll invite uh a lot of influencers in early. will make things in this in the new packs and then you know it's a part of the big promotion campaign. They've all basically left because they don't want to be any have any part of this. So the Sims now struggling like Project Renee which was the rumored you know Sims 5 not going to be what everyone thought it was going to be. It's going to be more of like this multiplayer connectivity experience whatever the hell that means. But the real thing that they've done this week that is fascinating to me is that they

are introducing like an online official store. So one of the things that keeps the Sims alive and the Sims 4 came out what 2014
and it was barebones. It was not a good launch for the Sims. I mean it was a good numbers wise but it wasn't a good launch content wise. And so over the years there have been expansion packs which are the big you know gameplay changing lot of items lot of clothing options lot of uh maker sim uh creative sim options then there have been stuff packs which is slightly smaller scale and there's kits which are even smaller scale another huge way that the Sims 4 has been kept alive is by custom content created by its players. There are rules. The Sims can't you can't paywall them. Um or if you do payw wall them, it's only for early access and everything basically has to be free. Um it's a thriving marketplace. And so now The Sims has decided it wants a cut of that. Um guess what the rev split is if you sell it through the official Sims marketplace?

30%.
Yeah, 30%. Uh everything is allegedly human. Uh the human a human will review it. Um I don't know. The Sims does not have a necessarily good track record as we've also seen with people creating families uh based on Jeffrey Epste and Gain Maxwell and them just living in the in the gallery for years now. There's there's been one that's been in there since 2023. The community is not a fan uh of these proposed changes. You have to become an official maker. You have to basically um Yeah. Oh, and also they've introduced a new currency. You can't just buy it. I mean, if you're a maker, you get to set the price, but it's like buying Xbox points all over again. You have to buy moola.
Um, right.
So, you can imagine this has gone down like a sack of S. um the community uh and especially yeah the these modders

who make cuz modding in the Sims is not just you know making a new outfit or making a new piece of um furniture. Some of the mods in there are incredibly complex and like change the way the games made. Like there's one that was like this open world mod that introduced horses and stuff and that was you around the time that the cottage living expansion pack comes on. There's other stuff obviously there's like the adult mods have their own um life cycle I suppose you know there's all the adult mods you need to think about too. Um so yeah it's uh the Sims are struggling to you know they need to maintain that player base. They need to maintain the money coming in. I mean, when you're talking about the kits and stuff packs that we we got coming for that game, it's like laundry day stuff that they're charging a tenner for.
Yeah.
And so it's it's it's it to me like outside looking in it's like oh is this the death throws of the Sims 4 because

they haven't got the new game? They're just going to nickel and dime.
Yeah. So I'm looking at the numbers here. I think so middle of last year it was on about 1.3 million players. It sort of end of the year it dropped to 1 point. Yeah. 1.2 2 1.22 million players
and it's free to play now to be clear. But it is going it is there is a obvious decline now over the last you know three years in terms of play out which I guess isn't unusual for a game of its age but it's you know but the movie will save it right that's the uh
oh god I forgot about the movie
you know what I mean honestly Barbie was great and if it's that same it's the same people that Margot Robbiey's involved
I there there was so much fun stuff you could do with Sims like there's um Bella Goth and there's aliens and there's like official lore and stuff there's fun stuff they could do with it but yeah it's just I understand packing everything into one game to make it the game, the everything app,
uh, if you'll pardon the the comparison, but
it we're at a point now where it's like

what how you can't char you can charge for water next. Like what's happening here?
Yeah. Well, we'll see what happens with the Sims is, you know, the thing with live service, they all change their minds and they pivot and change and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, I mean from my side, one of the topics of the week has been well, it's been the video games media. Obviously, we had some cuts at Era Gamer. Um,
okay.
It just feels endless. At least with game development, you can see some bright spots here and there, some markets where there's some growth and stuff, but in media just feels like there's nothing. It's just um
yeah,
it's a lot of doom and gloom. Um
there was I mean there's there's new obviously new outlets popping up like this week in video games and is it restart and you know a couple of these like smaller publications starting but I think traditional games medias we know it is yeah
yeah it's it was there's a story I saw today about how tech the tech websites lost 58% of their traffic in two years or something like
I mean and someone who's uh who was you know CNET was a sister website to us

years and like I remember being on the outside on on the inside rather when um
there was a first initial you know like things started to go downhill and it was scary cuz was always seen as the
well that's the that's you can't the unthinkable CNET I suppose and yeah looking at the the 58% drop
um is quite
terrifying. Did you see the video gamer story last you? You must have done
the click out.
I mean just the AI reviews of Resident Evil Recreum.
Oh well, so so um fandom, you know, we're still we're still sister websites with Metacritic and Mark Doyle. Shout out to the team at Metacritic. They got on that like immediately.
I'm not one of those people that's like you didn't move within 20 seconds, therefore you're you should be, you know, they they they they addressed it as soon as it became to their attention. Um,
have you read the article on Aftermath?
No, I didn't.
So, ClickOut Media is the company that bought Video Gamer, who bought GamesHub.

Yeah.
Um, it's just it's sort of like the inside story about how they operate. And so, one of the one of the people who was working there, she was like, "Oh, yeah. Um, you had to get a a password for WordPress every day. There would be a new password every day just to log into the CMS because they would just lay people off or people weren't, you know, real.
No.
And then Valet had polygon layoffs yesterday, too. Um,
yes.
Well, yeah. The AI thing was I don't me wrong. I I think it's wrong in all all way, shape, and form. But the I I can at least go AI rewrites a press releases. I can understand why a reader wouldn't care too much about that. But an AI writing a review, a non-existent person giving an opinion on a game. I mean, that's just on every level. There's nothing there's nothing justifiable or defensible about doing that. Um,
it got me thinking though a little bit about AI recommendations. So,

um, Fan Census, uh, who do they do a lot of tracking of like how many press articles games get and how many Twitter mentions, all that kind of stuff. They've been doing a project around AI platforms. they um and the questions around what video games they recommend. So they asked six different types of questions to chat GPT Gemini and Perplexity. And this is they did it twice a day every day between January 19th and March 2nd. The first questions they asked was that they were quite general. I don't think anyone's asking these actual questions by the way, but it gives some insight here. And they're asking questions like recommend some games to me or what should I play next?
And so this wasn't specifically for unreleased games. This is like any games, you know, you know, what shall I play? Um, and some of the some of the I learned a lot about about these platforms from reading this. Chat DPT focused almost entirely on established games. So, not unreleased games. They didn't mention GTA 6 at all.
That's wild.
Well, because it's just games, you know, if you're a consumer and you're going, I want to play a game and you'd want to

recommend a game that can actually play. Um, Perplexity did the opposite. Almost did only games that aren't out yet, which I don't think I think was really odd. Gemini was sort of in between the two. Um, and you can might so you might GBT is recommending things like Elder Ring and Clare Obscure. Perplexity is recommending Resident Evil Recquum, Grand Theft Auto 6, Marvel's Wolverine. Um, Gemini is sort of in between the two as say. Um, but what was um, so they're quite different how they do things, but it was the sources that I again learning lots of stuff about. Um, chat GPT is primarily citing Metacritic, uh, Wikipedia, uh, and Games Radar. Um, it's also using Nintendo.com and The Verge, which the Gemini does not use those at all. Chat GPT is particularly reliant on Wikipedia. It's the number one source for them. It was the most highlighted source during the game awards, too. Um, Gemini uses it a bit, but it's only the 12th most common source for Gemini. Gemini also uses Metacritic and Games Radar quite a bit. But then YouTube is the biggest for Gemini. Chat PT, Jack GPT doesn't site YouTube at all. IGN is cited for Gemini a lot, but not Jack GT.

Jack GPT can't do it at all. Reddit is a big one for Gemini, but not at all for chat GPT. I mean, I don't I don't know how I don't know how familiar you are with what what gets cited with these things. I don't
not I mean, I know that Reddit in particular, I think signed Yes. I think there's a certain certain places have certain deals based on which LLM can scrape from it. But there's also, see, oh, I forget what the name is, but there's SEO writing, but there is another one that's like writing for AI. Is there Oh, I I'm interested from a PR perspective, from the industry perspective. Like, um, oh, by the way, all this I'm not going to go through every piece of data because I'll be here all day and it'll be in the newsletter. You can see the charts of where things. But, Fan Census, as well as asking, hey, what games to recommend? They did recom they did ask, "What do you want to wish list? What would you like to pre, you know, what should I wishlist or pre-order?" Again, no one's asking that question, but it still throwed up some interesting things. Um, so what does AI consider to be the big upcoming games?

Um, and in the on the newsletter they also compare it to how many press headlines these are games got. But I mean the top recommended games are what you'd expect. It's GTA 6 number one.
Um, oddly number one on Gemini, number two on Chat GPT apparently.
What's number one on CH GP2?
I didn't write that down in front of me.
Um, it's I think some of it's a bit time related. So Marvel's Wolverine is number two. Although Chat GPT only recommends that at number 15. The reason for that is Chat GPT didn't recommend it at all. Wolverine wasn't in its tracking at all until the release date announcement. Yeah.
Which caused a spike in press and social coverage which then got the attention of Chat GPT. Uh for Horizon 3 is number six. Um for Horizon 6 is number three. Resident Evil Recrim is number four, but it had its big spike the week ahead of release. That's up 45% in terms of mention. 7 First Light. This is weird. Seven first lights number five, but the state of play trailer didn't really impact its AI mentions.

Interesting.
Just contradicts every other piece of insight we got here. Other games in there, Crimson Desert and Amushia, Lego Batman. Lego Batman had a 100% surge in recommendations for Mayo after that character announcement they did.
Oh.
Um, which that's I didn't even I missed that.
I don't even know which character I I played it at Gamescom last year and I was like,
"Well, they did an announcement. They seven playable characters rather than the normal six billion that you get in that game." Oh, really? Oh, that's good. That's fun. I like that.
That's I mean, I didn't I missed the story as well, but AI didn't um
AI logged in on the Lego Batman beat.
I do wonder how much this is a thing now for PRs. You know, cuz if you if IGN's a big thing on Gemini and you're going, "Hey, which one? Which
should I put my game into the FanFest that they do?" Whatever they call it.
I wonder if that has its benefits and that kind of stuff. But again, the games aren't surprising. But I do my thing and I might even do this now is that people aren't going to ask what games do you recommend. They're going to say something like
uh I like Resident Evil. I loved Resident Evil Recreum. I'm going

to do that now. Actually, I'm going to test it.
You actually Okay.
I I I I love Resident Evil Recreum.
I don't think I've used like a
I've never I've never do this stuff.
Okay. Wait. Okay. I've got I've got Claude. Hang on. I'll I'll check with Claude. I love Resident Evil Rook Queen. The thing is they're just going to list other Resident Evil games.
Which game should I play next?
It's just going to recommend other Resident Evil games, isn't it? I'm going to have to ask it to remove.
Yeah,
I mean I would say Alan Wake 2. Um I would say Silent Hill 2. Um that's what I would pick as somebody if someone asked me. Yeah, loads of Resident Evil. Oh, Dead Space is in there.
Okay. I I
Oh my god. All right. Sorry. First of all, I don't like the fact that it's going great taste. Reququum is an absolute monster of a game since it blends Grace's survival horror with Leon's action gameplay the best next game. It really depends on which side you enjoyed more. Here are some top picks. Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. Reququum's director made this one too.

Did he?
I thought he made Revelations. Did he make it?
Yeah. Yeah.
Village. Yep. Four remake. Two remake. Three remake. My personal recommendation if you haven't played RE4 remake start there. So yeah, it's only recommended me Resident Evil games.
Well, I've got so most of the ones I've got from Gemini is is is Resident Evil games, but there is Dead Space in there, there's Silent Hill in there, and there's Alan Wake 2 in there. Other genre defining alternatives, Signalis,
which I don't know very well. Um, uh, yeah. Anyway, I think you're more likely to get those sort of things, but I think it is interesting, you know, to know where people are sourcing it. YouTube's a source.
Oh, yeah. Let me see where I source this from. Um,
sources Wikipedia and IMD. Yeah. So, it went it went IMDb first. Resident Evil on Wikipedia. Capcom press release saying it sold 5 million.
PlayStation. Yeah,
this is a good segue to talk about Resident Evil.
Great.
Pros. What a absolute sensational

success this game has been. We could have predicted it obviously in the buildup to it. 5 million games sold in just under a week. For some reason, Capcom haven't proudly boasted this is the fastest selling Resident Evil game ever. But it is the fastest selling Resident Evil game ever. Resident Evil 4 took three months to hit that number. Resident Evil Village took 5 months. Resident Evil 3 remake took 2 years. Resident Evil 2 remake shipped 4 million its first month. That was a big hit. But yeah,
this is by far the fastest selling Resident Evil game in history. Um, I'm not surprised by that because of the pure buzz in the buildup to it. Um, according to VGI, Steam might be it's all quite close. So, you don't want to This is all based on estimates. So, it's it's all a bit close. Steam might be the number one platform for Resident Evil or this is fascinating that doesn't normally happen. It's always PlayStation off. Yeah. Um, it's already the most downloaded game on Steam yet to date. Um, obviously if you saw the concurrent numbers go on Steam DB, 344,000, 414 pink concurrent uh players have been reported on Steam. That's more than double what Resident Evil 4's remakes peak was. over three times Resident Evil

Villages Peak.
It's been sensational and I've only just started it um uh the game. I'm a big fan. I've got it on so don't, you know, no spoilers from my side,
but it was um I'm a huge fan of Resident Evil. Um but it's good, isn't it?
It's really good. I'm I'm really enjoying it and I I'm playing it on PC. Uh but the fact that they had it up and running on Switch, too, and by all accounts, it's a great version of the game to play. Um, the fact that it runs really well on handhelds, if playing it on Steam Deck, I think it's a very smart approach to, you know,
yeah, make sure stuff works on lower-end hardware, that's great because we're going into a phase where no one's going to be able to buy new stuff. Uh, but overall, it's a great game. I think they did a really smart job of mixing the like the gray sections. I played it at preview and that gray section, I was like, I'm happy for that to be the whole thing, right? But then you get to the Leon of it all and it is Leon is just

pure cathosis which is kind of what you want from that character and I think it's really masterful at balancing the two. Um
and yeah, it's just a really fun game.
Very very picky. I probably would have had Leon come in a bit later than he did. That's the only thing that I would I would probably I didn't need the bit where he's running through the streets. But anyway, we're getting into the specifics that different podcast. I think the way Capcom have pulled this off of Resident Evil is a work of art from a PR point of view. The game is amazing. We can talk about that. But um game Capcom have a reputation for being fantastic at making their games live forever, right? They just keep selling millions and millions and millions every years. But and their back catalog success is phenomenal. Other publishers do really good job of it. Capcom do an excellent job of it. But they're I they're so good at these big launches as well. And I think as I say, it begins, you talked about it there, it begins with multiplatform. And Resident Evil's always been multiplatform, but in a really weird way. If you go go back to when I was younger, um uh the first three games obviously were closely aligned with um uh PlayStation, you know, Res 2 and 3, but Resident Evil 1

was on PC. I played it on PC. Um it's on Sega Saturn as well. Resident Evil 2 got that Impossible port to the N64. Then Code Veronica was initially exclusive to Dreamcast. Then there was all the Resident Evil exclusive GameCube games, you know, which included 01 remake and then four for a brief period of time. Yeah. Uh, the PS2 had all the spin-offs. The Wii there was Wii games that were only on Wii.
It was um Oh, um, the DS one.
Yeah, it was the DS one.
There was the There was the There was the remake of Resident Evil one or the Resident Evil one version of it, but there was the 3DS one, Resvelations, which was exclusive to that for a bit,
which which in the UK was printed as Revelations because I misprinted the cover.
It's a spine, wasn't it?
It was a spine.
Yeah. Yeah.
I remember we had one of those in the office. I should I should have I should have nicked it. collector's item,
probably worth a fortune now. Um, there was a Nintendo Game Boy game, getting Resident Evil Gaden, which is, you know, not as bad as you as I remember it. Um, but that's that's also a Resident Evil game, but that was obviously not the most consumerfriendly multiplatform strategy because ultimately you needed

to own like seven consoles to be able to complete the Resident Evil set. Um, but obviously that's consolidated over time. Now, Capcom really tries to make each new Resident Evil available in as many places as possible. That includes the iPhone, by the way. Um, Resident Evil 4 remake is obviously on iPhone. And they did the whole cloud streaming thing on Switch
and uh VR
and VR
VR vision. Yeah.
So they've always been really big on multiplatform lately trying to get the games out available across all platforms.
Well, the one thing I would say is unusual about Reququum's launch is that in terms of the playbook they've done for seven and eight in particular is they did not release a demo for it.
No, that is they that is interesting. Yeah, cuz seven had uh well, there was the kitchen demo first, but then there was the um the videotape ones. Eight had a demo and then yeah, nine didn't, which I thought was strange, but like it didn't need it. Like, look at the sales results. I think we're totally fine there. But it was it was interesting because they had a demo that I played at Summer GameFest last year, which was

20-minute section of Grace in the uh hospital place.
Yeah. very very quick but gets you to the point gets you familiar with Grace a little bit and it's a it's a good scare that was at Gaines Colum that was at multiple places like on show but they never released it and I I was surprised that because it was just packaged up it was perfect it's ready to go
yeah that was that is that does surprise me actually they did historically do that they have done a different approach this time to their marketing because I don't know if you know this but Resident Evil 7 Bioshock so Resident Evil 7 obviously is the the comeback for Resident Evil from 2017 um and then They followed that up with Resident Evil remakes. So, Resident Evil 2, 3, there was Resident Evil Village, there's Resident Evil 4 remakes. So, they they they've done loads of games. So, that's five games. All of those games were announced at a PlayStation event.
So, they were all announced at either a PlayStation E3 conference or a PlayStation State of Play event. Um because PlayStations, and you'd understand why, you know, since PlayStation's a good home for Resident Evil, it's a single player story game. It has that history of PlayStation as

well.
Um
but not Reququum, right?
No. And that's that's where they change things. So um and actual fact if you look historically Resident Evil has done very well on even the new Resident Evil games have done very well on PlayStation. Resident Evil 4 remake um twothirds of its sales at launch were on PS4 PS5. So it's like it's it's what they've targeted. They know the audience. But as say with Recreum they didn't they well it was the event you were co-hosting
that old thing. Yeah. I did not a peak behind the curtain there was that I genuinely didn't know if Nick was there. I had a suspicion. Um, but yeah, the the way that the rehearsals worked out is that that section was rehearsed after me uh after I'd left for the day. So, I didn't I didn't know that was the first time I saw that trailer was backstage with everyone
and but they pulled the it was really creatively done, right? Because obviously they did the whole fake out of you have to wait a little bit longer for the uh for the trailer. I did I did find it mad that people are like maybe I'm

just so used to the the re the reach for the moon engine but it's like as soon as I saw the hair I was like that's Resident Evil. I know exactly what that is.
But be because three videos earlier you had the Resident Evil director saying you have to wait a little bit longer. I was like ah. And when I saw it I immediately thought it looked like Resident Evil. Yeah. But I thought but it can't be cuz they just told me it's not coming yet. And it was a very
well being in the room. People in the room did not realize it was Resident Evil until they saw RCPD or whatever it was.
That was the moment and they were like
it it it was it was really good. And I think what's also really good about it is that actually it introduced Grace, right? So you're not sitting there going, "Here's Chris Redfield, here's Leon S. Kennedy, here's an iconic fan character." It's going,
we're putting this during Summer GameFest. It's now a plat platform agnostic show. It's not a PlayStation show. It's not an Xbox show. This is for everybody. PC is clearly a massive opportunity for everyone in the PC console space at the moment. That's where the growth is at the moment. They've gone, we're going to go on the show that can reach the PC audience. And

they uh they introduce a character that we've not seen before. Nobody knows who that person is. I mean, if you there's a you can law you can do, but like but it's like it generally speaking, it's not it's a new character. Well, it is a new character. Um and um and and obviously it isn't until the you know still did the fan moment as you say with the police station reveal and the raccoon city return but if you didn't know that you'd still watch that trailer and find it quite compelling. I thought it was an excellent trailer excellent delivered
multiplatform um event within a few weeks Resident Evil Recrim was added to over a million wish lists after that reveal. Um they did do as you say they did do some hands-on to selected important people
very limit yeah important people. No. Uh I will that one section where uh the lovely person from Capcom was watching me play and I I when I whenever I play spec specifically survival horror games I I think I the way I overcome my fear is by messing with the game's AI just to see what I can and can't get away with

and I was doing that and at one point someone from Capcom came over was like oh you know that that that doesn't work. That's that's not going to scare the monster away. And I was like, "Yeah, oh no, I'm sorry. You think I'm really bad at this game? No, I'm promise. I'm I'm doing something. I'm trying something." And then I immediately got eaten. So I was like, "Oh."
Uh, Alex told me, Alex Donaldson, who comes on the show, he also was one of the selected limited very important people that got to play the game. I only I was only I was only deemed worthy of the watching the video. Seeing as I don't preview or review games, I think that's fair enough. But the um uh Alex uh got hands on with it and he told me he did this thing where he's he had the lighter or something and the light
what I did cuz you don't have a torch but you have a lighter. So I was just
And so he his light had come out. He heard something in the room. The creature had come into the room. He sat there very silently for ages waiting for the creature to leave. He thought the creature had left and he lit the lighter and it was right in his face and he apparently screamed and then it was like uh anyway uh so they did do some behind

closed doors things. It did get a bit of hype around that. They did, as you say, took the demo to Gamescom and PAX West and made it publicly. They showed another trailer at that point again focusing on Grace uh the new character. Um and then came the Nintendo partnership. Oh, sorry. Go on. Oh, I was going to say cuz was that the Nintendo partnership before or after the Leon reveal at TGA?
So Nintendo
and the Porsche partnership.
The Nintendo partnership was like September. It was quite it was actually part of it was actually quite a lot earlier. Um and I think that's interesting as I said earlier. Yes, it has a Resident Evil has a relationship with PlayStation, but it also has one with Nintendo. um going back to that original N64 version of Resident Evil 2, but also that whole Gamecube era where Resident Evil one, Resident Evil 1 and Zero were the one remake was basically exclusive for Nintendo for quite a long time before it came to any other platform. Resident Evil 4 was a quick turnaround. Um but it wasn't just that Resident Evil Recquum was coming to Switch 2. There's a proper tie up, you know, there's a the Recreum amiibo is

coming. There was a
Yeah, look how they've massacred my boy with that one, though.
Yeah, I know. I've got this ugly Resident Evil controller that I uh that I had to buy. Um
Did you have to buy it?
Yeah, I did. I also bought the Grace watch, by the way. Um I'm
Shut up. No, you didn't.
I did.
Um uh so um so yes, there's a Resident Evil uh Switch 2 controller. There is um amiibo coming. There is this generation pack which is the um
Resident Evil. They they didn't so they didn't just release Resident Evil Reququum on Switch 2. They also bought Village and uh Resident Evil 7
to um the uh uh the platform. So they went really big with Nintendo.
Um and cuz cuz Nintendo, I guess, like PCs, they have identified it as a market that they they've kind of missed out on. They did release some of these games on Switch One, but you had to have a cloud version. They weren't able to do a native version of it. Um now I'm interested to see how this is going to do on Switch because
I've got some UK data in and it doesn't

suggest the Switch 2 version was particularly massive. Obviously, I think we need to see Japan and the US, but I have some views on this. Sony did a survey. You may not, you may remember this, Lisy, I don't know. Um, it found that nearly half of all PS5 owners in the US also owned a Nintendo Switch. This was part of the FDC documents that came out.
That's just PC. It doesn't include Xbox PS5. It doesn't include Xbox or PC. Now, I'm going to add my own speculation on this where I think for Switch 2 that crossover is going to be even higher because I think the people who buy a new console within that first year are the sorts of people that probably own a gaming PC or a PlayStation or an Xbox as well.
So, Requum comes to Switch 2 at a time when a large proportion of the Switch 2 base, it's my belief, um already own another device that plays Recquum.
So, for those players with Reququum, are you going to choose to play the game on Switch 2
or one of those other platforms?
Mhm. And I'm going to go on myself here. I did, as you can see, I did order the Switch 2 version of Resident Evil

Recreum, but two days before I bottled it and bought it on PS5. Um, and um, uh,
I love that you have the props, by the way. You got them over.
I don't have the watch, though. The the uh, but um, uh, but I I think I think if you I think playing on a portable is wonderful. You got that under the cover sort of experience. I can get that. But I do think you're probably going to go to the slightly it runs incredible incredibly well on Switch too. You know, it's an incredible um version, but I do think um it obviously runs better on PlayStation than Xbox and I think you're probably more light on PC. I think you're probably more likely to choose that
butter on PC. It's really good. But that's the sort of thing is that I was playing it um pre-release and then I I was right at the end and then I went on a trip and I downloaded it on my rag ally and I was like I could I could just finish it here but I didn't want to. I

mean obviously in my hotel room I will never play an embargoed game
on a plane or in public cuz we all saw that Tomb Raider thing you know people with whatever. I will never I'll never do that. And so I was like in my hotel room and I was like I could play it right now. And I was like oh but I've been playing it on my big TV on ultra. I don't want to play it like this. And this that is ultimate first world problem. That is a very privileged problem to have. But it's like I paused playing it for a week because I didn't want to play it on a system that I deemed inferior. And I think that's the the thing that where I'm at now is that like when presented with the choice, I would rather hold off cuz I could have played it on Switch or I could have played it on handheld because I would rather hold off and play it on the bigger screen. However, if that is not the case for you, you could play it wherever, but it's still awesome.
I think I I think it depends for me it always depends on the game. Um I think with a game like there it's a cinematic game, right? You kind of want to have that cinematic experience. So that's my theory on it. So, I think Switch 2 might

be a longerterm play for Capcom. I think when when hopefully Nintendo bring in that Pokemon audience and that Mario audience over time when they release those games on the platform and it starts to broaden out and we start to see a larger proportion of people who perhaps don't own the other consoles. That's might be an opportunity for Cap. Regardless, anyway, I sort of deviated off there. Regardless, that was another platform that Capcom's identified as a potential way of growing the Resident Evil um uh franchise. And then obviously, it did its next big reveal at the Game Awards. And again, it stole the game awards. It was the most talked about, most um covered, biggest social engagement, all that kind of stuff at the Summer Game Fest. And it did it again at the Game Awards, which is unheard of really for a game that isn't
not unheard of, but it's unusual for a game that isn't
that isn't new, hasn't it isn't a game announcement. And it was all because of that Leon S. Kennedy as a playable character thing, which I was surprised by that reaction cuz I love Leon like any Resident Evil fan. But it was like some of the people are saying it's the first time Resident Evil Leon's appeared in 16 years. I'm like, "Yeah, but he was in the four remake and the two remake."

As a new as a new Leon story, it's the first time I think as well.
Capcom, how how much are you on TikTok?
Uh, not very often. I post some bit from disappear.
So, so Capcom as well, this is another interesting wrinkle to it is that Capcom lent into the female gaze with Leon.
Oh, I see. So, Capcom were posting thirst traps of Leon, like the official Resident Evil and official Capcom accounts were posting. There was one in particular which was these like quick cuts of Leon in uh from trailers with the like daddy's home, you know, like they lend into it. They were very much meeting kind of cuz the reaction from the audience is hell yeah, Leon's back. We're so stoked to see him. He has a new story, first one since four. First original story since four. Uh, and then, oh wow, he's hot. Oh, no, he's hot. And so the official Capcom will blend into that. I have a watch. Um, and so yeah,

they they did were really smart about reaching players where they they were on TikTok and all these short form video platforms and leading into the joke about
why people like guys want to be him, girls want to be with him.
I just find Leon's journey. started Leon last story was Resident Evil 6 to correct you there and
he was a little Yeah, but you know he's not
he's he's one of the he's one he's one of the ensemble in that one but the
I was going to say I forget about Resident Evil 6.
Well and and everyone should and but the um but um uh I I I always find this is the worst business podcast in the world. I find Leon um a really odd he was always the gorkier one, right? Resident Evil one, Chris Redfield was the
Chris was the the the the soldier guy with a big gun. The meat Yeah. Yeah. And Leon was the sort of floppy head sort of um awkward nervous rookie.
Sensitive.
He's nervous rookie. I always loved Leon more because I related to that more than the meatthead. But but I do find that

he's become um a lot more Chris as the uh
he's battleh hardened. I mean the thing is and so for context on my morning is that I'm speaking to um the actors behind Leon and Grace, Nick and Angela after this and the first question I'm going to ask is the fact that Leon is married.
Yeah. Well, see the world on fire.
But I love the fact I think I honestly c you think about all the other games from the '90s like Tomb Raider's coming back this year and there's all these sort of this is coming back to Resident Evil's never gone away and I think that is a real phenomenal result. But anyway, my point being this is I'm going to wrap up by going, you know, after the Leon Kennedy reveal which did so well, they did obviously their Resident Evil showcase where they showed off those watches and the and the and the
and the and the and the Porsche car and all this sort of um oldie sort of things. Um
uh but Resident Evil Recreum ahead of its launch was the most talked about outside of Res, which I'm just going to discount cuz that's like that's a

different thing. Um it was the most talked about game in the media amongst creators. his trailers were doing the most views. It was top of the Steam wish list charts. It was number one for social engagement. This is all level updated by the way.
And it did that by going multiplatform, going broad with a marketing game that embraced the fans, but gave newcomers something to be sort of attracted to. It went deep with things. I just think it was an absolute masterclass from a PR and marketing perspective. And so, hats off to Capcom, I think, for
and it's a bloody good game.
Obviously, none of that would have worked if it was rubbish.
Yeah, it's crap. Um but uh yes, excellent. Fantastic. And now it's on now it's on Poctopia to follow that up. Um which
is this is this where I blow dust off my Switch 2 and actually play a game on it?
Yeah. Well, I've barely played my anything but the Switch 2. Well, I don't get as much um screen time as I used to. I say that the youngest my eldest is really into Astrobot at the moment. Absolutely. He's he's really into it. So PS5 has been out quite a lot

lately, but um and now Resident Evil's on it. So um and as long as I try and make sure that's not loaded up when he clicks on it. Um
but it was Pocopia is a fun one because um uh it feels like this. Is this our Barbie? Is this a OP, you know? Um bar. Yeah. So what would this be? Poke.
Uh
Pquam.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. There. This is This is our
Recopia. Oh no. Yeah. Well, it's certainly
chop that.
Well, this could be our moment. Um, but yeah, it's it's obviously um I just think it's great and I think it's wonderful and I thought it's nice to do an episode of the show where it's not all I mean, it has started a bit doom and gloom, but it ended on a on a a game that everyone's done very well and I think it's excellent. I hope it continues to do well. It will know in Capcom's history, it's just going to keep going and going and going
um forever with a rumored Code Veronica remake. Yes. Well, you know, the game

that really is the real Resident Evil 3, as I like to call it, um is uh going into my nerdy
I'm going to stop this, Lucy, before we bore out my listeners anymore about Resident Evil Law. Um thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
So, you've got a Friends per second podcast with the
I do
with the voice cast
with Nick and Angela. So, that'll be going up. That'll be our GDC episodes. That'll be that'll be next week. Um, but in the meantime, I'm on Blue Sky Instagram, Lucy James Games. Find me a game spot. Got a Steam curator page finally because people in the Friends per second comments were telling me to get one because I have Lucy ass games that only I talk about on the show. So, if you want to follow me there for my recommendation, especially from NextFest because I played a lot of good stuff there. Play Runt, please. Everyone play Runt. I thought it was fantastic demo. visual novel meets hoper meets deductive game meets gothic horror meets

post-apocalyptic family drama. It was fantastic. I loved it.
Wow.
Um so yeah, I'm a Steam curator at least games as well. Although it's hard to find me apparently, but I think that's just an inherent problem with the Steam curator program.
There might be a discoverability problem on Steam. Um that might,
you know, I might have heard that.
Yeah,
someone should do something about it. Yes. Um, well, thank you, Lucy. I mean, that's it for today's episode of the Game Business Show. Say thank you, Lucy, for joining us. It's always lovely to have you on. We'll be back with more news, analysis, insight, and interviews in the days and weeks ahead. Do head to the gamebus.com and sign up to make sure you don't miss a thing from us. Until next time, thank you for tuning in. Bye-bye.