Capcom officially reveals the Resident Evil 3 remake’s sales figures and the number is much lower than the Resident Evil 2 remake that launched last year. The company released the Resident Evil 3 remake in April of this year, offering a new take on the popular horror title, with changes to the story and a new online multiplayer mode.
In its new financial presentation, Capcom confirmed that the Resident Evil 3 remake has sold more than 2.7 million units since the game was released in April. Two million copies of the game were sold in the first five days of release and of these, “nearly 50% of sales” were digital, said Capcom back in April.
The number of digital sales may surprise some given that there was some backlash against the Resident Evil 3 remake’s regional pricing on Steam. It is possible though that COVID-19, which has kept people at home, and away from game retailers, prompted more digital downloads of the game.
While few developers would dismiss sales of this magnitude, this does mean that Resident Evil 3 has been less successful so far compared to the Resident Evil 2 remake. Just two months after launch, the Resident Evil 2 remake’s sales had reached 4.2 million units. The Resident Evil 3 remake has sold 1.5 million units fewer than the remake that came before it and this could be for a variety of reasons.
The main reason could be that the reviews of the Resident Evil 3 remake weren’t nearly as praiseworthy as those for the Resident Evil 2 remake. The Resident Evil 3 remake made some surprising and controversial decisions, such as the removal of the game’s multiple endings. This may have been done to establish a new canon for the series, but it’s something that not all fans and critics were on board with.
Another could just be that after the Resident Evil 2 remake, fans may not have felt that they needed to play another one so soon after. The Resident Evil 3 remake is shorter than the one that came before it and with mods and content creators, players had been able to wring out many more hours from the Resident Evil 2 remake.
However, this may not mean that Capcom has made or will make less money from the Resident Evil 3 remake. Capcom has begun to sell premium DLC for Resident Evil Resistance, the online multiplayer that comes with the Resident Evil 3 remake. While it’s unclear how much money Capcom makes from DLC, it is possible that it could help to bridge the gap between the revenue made from Resident Evil 2 and 3 remake sales.
Resident Evil 3 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Capcom
