At first blush, Resistance 3, the retro 1950’s first person shooter game from Insomniac Games, looks like it had all the ingredients for success. It has a good storyline, received lots of positive critical reviews, a decent fan base and released emotionally gripping ads. Well, just like in cooking, even if you have all the ingredients but they are not mixed right and if the circumstances are not right, you will just cook it the wrong way and things will not turn out successful. Based on Resistance 3’s sales figures, it looks like all those awesome ingredients did not add up to create a decent hit.
Resistance 3 has been out for quite a while now but was only able to rack out 275,000 copies. Considering the big budgets involved in major game title development nowadays, 275,000 copies is not going to cut it. Like it or not, video games are going the same way as Hollywood movies. Studio released movies normally cost 30 million dollars or more to produce and lackluster movies are only made possible because hits subsidise the studio to take risks in financing smaller titles. So, where does this lead the Resistance franchise? Some bloggers are saying that maybe they should recycle the IP into other console platforms while others say that they should pay attention what fans are saying and keep that in mind for resistance 4. Considering the cost of development and the amount of sales this title has generated, the possibility that there will be Resistance 4 is pretty much doubtful at the moment.
Link: http://www.gamebandits.com/news/ps3/resistance-3-disappointing-sales-cast-series-into-doubt-16714/