Five Reasons ‘Resident Evil 6′ Saved The Franchise… And Capcom, To Boot

My review of Resident Evil 6, while not full of the torches and pitchforks most Western critics have been handing out for Capcom, was hardly enthusiastic. And I still think it’s a mediocre game.

But there’s an ongoing theme in the gaming press that Capcom has finally killed the franchise. And, going by the critics, they’d be right.

One small problem with that: So far, Capcom’s shipped 4.5 million units of the game, an in-house record. True, shipments aren’t sales, but that’s still a lot of games out the door.

Of course, this raises a few possible problems with Resident Evil 7. But this is good news not just for the franchise, but for the beleaguered publisher and developer that put it out.

Let’s start with the franchise itself:

Even The Angriest Critic Has To Admit That The Series Has Improved Technically Over Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 6 is in no way perfect, mind you, but the graphics are stunning, the AI is much improved, and there’s more gameplay variety. Unless you were demanding the franchise suddenly be nothing but survival horror, which it hasn’t been since Resident Evil 4, this is a pretty good overhaul.

There Will Be a Resident Evil 7

It’s likely already in the works. You don’t break in-house records and then give up. So, no, the franchise is not dead, but Capcom reads reviews like anybody else.

The Franchise Has Had Actual High Notes Recently

Lost amid all the hubbub about the latest console entry was, as our own Nathan Birch pointed out, the fact that Resident Evil: Revelations was a great game. If Resident Evil 6 has to be the chunk of cheese to make the money that Capcom needs to justify games like that to its board, OK then.