In a rundown of its most recent earnings results, Resident Evil series publisher Capcom announced that Resident Evil 3 remake sales had hit “2.7 million units” in the (roughly) three months following the horror game’s launch. While that’s still an impressive figure, it doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessor Resident Evil 2’s sales – and it seems the studio’s not wholly surprised about RE3’s performance.
In a Q&A summary document accompanying the fiscal results on Capcom’s site (via VGC), the publisher answers a point on “how Resident Evil 3 has been received, and what pricing strategies there are for the future”, replying: “With reference to sales trends for the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis as well, results have not especially deviated from our internal sales plan”. This suggests the survival game’s sales haven’t been especially different to the company’s predictions or plans.
It’s not clear from the document why this is, but if you take a look at Capcom’s rundown of its various titles’ sales, you can see that the original Resident Evil 3 sold significantly fewer copies than the original Resident Evil 2 (3.5 million compared to 4.96 million), so it’s possible this is a factor.
“Looking ahead, we will consider pricing strategies targeting the holiday season, starting in autumn and running to the end of the year,” Capcom adds on the topic, also confirming that, for the company overall, “Results for Q1 have exceeded our internal projections” elsewhere in the summary.
If you’re yet to try the game for yourself, you might find out Resident Evil 3 review handy. In it, PCGamesN’s own Jordan Forward concludes, “Capcom’s latest is still one of the better entries to the series, but isn’t quite sure if it wants to be po-faced and terrifying or a campy, blockbuster shooter.”