Resident Evil's success on the Wii so far

[Bodhesatva]

I'd been saying for a long time that the titles on a system tend to cultivate the audience, as much or more than the other way around. Which is to say, Gears of War didn't just do well because the audience was there to recieve it, but because the game (and similar games like Halo before it) cultivated its own audience.

By far, the best example of this phenomenon is Resident Evil on Nintendo platforms. Why does Resident Evil sell so well on the Wii? It's a very violent third party shooter! Well, it just so happens to be the only franchise that put its major iteration on the Gamecube last generation.

 

 

In short, many third parties companies have spent the entirety of the last decade or more distancing themselves from Nintendo's platforms. How long has it been since Konami put a major franchise on a Nintendo home console? I honestly don't remember. Did they put anything on the N64? The Gamecube? Many of these companies have very specifically avoided Nintendo, and they've effectively managed to create a situation where the Nintendo faithful no longer have a cultivated taste for their games (and the casuals don't want them either, because all the traditional franchises are "hardcore" and don't suit their interests).