When the Resident Evil 2 remake was announced, fans of the long-running, and cirtically acclaimed survival-horror series were pretty excited to see Capcom finally paying some proper attention to one of their biggest franchises. The reason was quite simple: it could mean that Capcom had finally decided to take the series back to its survival-horror roots.
While Resident Evil 5 is still the series' best-selling title — with over an insnely impressive 10 million copies sold as of February, 2019 — its sequels, as well as the game itself, were not very well received by longtime fans, and this is mainly because the developers focused too much on the action; something that was never the series' main selling point.
Resident Evil 2 remake was released and was immediately praised by critics, fans, and mainstream players. This led Capcom to consider releasing a remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and they made the announcement official in December of 2019 — almost a year after the launch of the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 2.
Early this April, Capcom released Resident Evil 3 worldwide, and a week after the game's launch, the developer revealed that the recently released title had already managed to sell a very impressive 2 million copies. Since the release, however, not much has changed in terms of sales.
Last week, Capcom officially announced that Resident Evil 3 had only sold considerably less units than the Resident Evil 2 remake — with 2.7 million copies since its release in April — and becoming the Resident Evil's mainline series title with the lowest launch sales in over a decade since Resident Evil 5 released all the way back in 2009.
Interestingly enough, Capcom isn't surprised with the performance in sales of Resident Evil 3; as a matter of fact, they actually expected the game to underperform when compared to other titles in the series, and the reason is actually quite peculiar; comparing it to the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
"With reference to sales trends for the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis as well, results have not especially deviated from our internal sales plan. Looking ahead, we will consider pricing strategies targeting the holiday season, starting in autumn and running to the end of the year," Capcom revealed during an investor Q&A that took place this month.
Resident Evil 3 selling 2.7 million copies is not really a flop, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is quite interesting to see that Capcom set the bar somewhat lower from the get-go, since the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis also underperformed in comparison to Resident Evil 2 at the time.
Whatever the case, it is still good to know that Capcom has learnt from this, and will be considering other pricing strategies in the near future. A Resident Evil 4 remake was even been rumoured earlier this year, so maybe this will also help them reconsider releasing said title; one of the few Resident Evil games to be available on pretty much every console since its original release.
Jill Valentine is one of the last remaining people in Raccoon City to witness the atrocities Umbrella performed. To stop her, Umbrella unleashes their ultimate secret weapon; Nemesis! Also includes Resident Evil Resistance, a new 1 vs 4 online multiplayer game set in the Resident Evil universe where four survivors face-off against a sinister Mastermind.
Resident Evil 3 is currently available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC(Steam, Microsoft Windows).