By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Otter on 19 September 2025
Edit Thread
Phenomajp13 said:
Sephiran said:

Yeah i'm a firm believer that the reason why games like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy used to sell much more 20-30 years ago in Japan compared to today is mostly because Japanese gaming tastes have changed a lot over the years.

I mean if we go back to the time when those kinds of games were at their peak popularity in Japan (PS1 + PS2 generation), Animal Crossing was a low selling, ultra niche game on the N64 in Japan. While nowadays a game like Animal Crossing is the best selling game ever in Japan. That shows how much of Nintendo's success has come organically from Japanese gamers in general just shifting a lot when it comes to what kinds of games they enjoy. We see the same trend when it comes to Pikmin, used to be ultra niche and low selling in Japan and now sell more than FF/RE there.

IcaroRibeiro said:

When FF VII Remake and Resident Evil new titles releases on Switch 2 and sell poorly your feelings will be confirmed

Otter said:

Very curious to see how Borderlands and other third parties perform on S2.

There's a lot of sentiment about franchises like Resident Evil etc declining because they were stuck on Playstation but I kinda suspect it was the other way round. Playstation hardware decline and newer baseline (8-9m LT) is more a reflection of Japans lack of interest in most modern "AAA" titles

So you all are expecting RE9 to sale less than RE8? What would it have to sell combined (PC, PS5, and SW2) to not be considered a flop? Doubt most people are expecting it to be a break hit immediately when SW2 needs time to build a massive user base and rebuild the RE brand with the masses.

Well I don't consider recent RE to be a flop in any case because my sales expectation has been adjusted to 400k physical+ digital to being a strong hit for the franchise in Japan, but people are still caught up on historic sales references.

For example Metal Gear Solid 3 remake was considered a big flop by one of the top comments last week because PlayStation's dying userbase:

"considering mgs v did 410k+ and mgs4 did 470k+, even though this is a "remake", 63k is abysmal. Game should have at least pushed 100k. PS is becoming xbox 360 like in Japan ngl."

Some things just loose popularity, look at fighting games in Japan in the 2000s versus now. SF6 on Switch 2 doesn't alter the lack of interest in fighting games and it exited the charts with 7k total whereas the PS5/4 versions exited the charts with around 50k combined back in 2023.

RE9 will sell more than RE8 of course. Even by February Switch 2 will have a usebase of 3.5m minimum  which would represent PS5 in summer of 2023 (3.5 years on market with internation scalping issue making real numbers even lower)

For me, a turn out which "disappoints" will be the game opening around <= 200k across PS5/Switch 2. As this will more or less be equivalent to RE4 remake on PS4/PS5 in 2023. Essentially it won't mark the growth people are expecting based on comments I read and will reveal the issue to be the franchises themselves versus a weak userbase. Of course having an eventual 30m userbase still helps especially with legs.

And my last point is to look at how games like Forza performed on Playstation 5 globally. 3m in one month. So I don't believe people need to grow up with franchises to make them a success. Final Fantasy and RE should be able to hit the ground running on S2 if they actually appeal to the market.

Last edited by Otter - on 20 September 2025