Capcom shares drop due to Resident Evil 7 shipping fewer copies than Resident Evil 5, RE6

Capcom maintains its estimate that it will ship four million copies before March 31, the end of its fiscal year.

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Capcom announced that Resident Evil 7 has shipped 2.5 million copies as of January 27, but the company's share value dropped due to investors expecting better news (via GameSpot).

The Japanese publisher's share value had fallen by three percent by the time the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed today, January 30.

Image courtesy of Bloomberg's Gearoid Reidy, via Twitter.

Investors are going by the commercial success of 2009's Resident Evil 5 and 2012's Resident Evil 6. Those titles remain Capcom's biggest-selling titles ever, shipping four and 4.5 million in their respective first weeks. Since release, RE5 has sold 7.1 million units, while RE6 has sold 6.6 million.

Capcom said that Resident Evil 7's 2.5 million number represented a "solid start" as of a few days ago. Earlier in December Capcom EMA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) marketing director Antoine Molant said that the company would "love to sell four million on day one globally," and that "Looking at what we see in the preorders and trends these days, we're pretty confident we are going to get there."

RE7 fell short of Capcom's projected marker, but the company has until March 31, the end of its 2017 fiscal year, to move another 1.5 million copies. Capcom stands a good chance of reaching its goal. The game is receiving high praise from critics, and several pieces of DLC should keep interest in the game high.

"We're not sitting back and relaxing at all because we want to push that. The confidence is there," Molant added in his interview.

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David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.

From The Chatty
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      January 30, 2017 12:57 PM

      Numbers probably won't go up on the PC side of things now that it's been cracked. Record time for a Denuvo game too. Sucks that they finally do right by the series and it doesn't sell well.

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        January 30, 2017 4:07 PM

        I think it will go up a lot, reviews have been great. Specially if they remove Denuvo. I searched for it, but couldn't find if RE5 and 6 had Denuvo on them. I wanted to get RE7, but I don't buy anything with denuvo on it anymore as a matter of principle, and I know a lot of people don't either. I keep thinking, what if denuvo is hurting the sales instead of helping?

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      January 30, 2017 1:00 PM

      the first weekend is too soon to write the obit, i imagine this will have a long tail

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        January 30, 2017 1:03 PM

        This is my guess. They could still very well sell another 1.5m before their fiscal year ends, as I mention in the article. Also, RE5 rode RE4's tailwinds, which gives it an advantage that no other game has to work with.

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          January 30, 2017 1:15 PM

          I have a feeling RE7 is going to have a longer tail than 5 & 6. But yeah, 5 definitely rode 4's coat tails and 6 was supposed to be the one that brought things back to what made 4 special. 7 is as close to PT as we're probably going to get though it also gets to fly under the RE banner.

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          January 30, 2017 1:31 PM

          I imagine the next bump will be when more PSVR units hit the shelves. word of mouth on the quality of the VR experience is going to be symbiotic for the two

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          January 30, 2017 1:32 PM

          word of mouth is going to help this one a lot.

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      January 30, 2017 1:03 PM

      Than

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      January 30, 2017 1:37 PM

      I'm waiting for the deals. I'm not a huge fan of intense survival horror like this but loved the original RE games (up to 5).

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      January 30, 2017 1:52 PM

      [deleted]

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        January 31, 2017 4:37 AM

        RE 4 is reallu good. I'm not into tge series, but this one rocks.

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      January 30, 2017 6:33 PM

      [deleted]

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      January 31, 2017 4:19 AM

      I'll add a sold copy as soon as I can PC VR this, Capcom. See you when your Sony deals runs out (or someone hacks it in.)

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        January 31, 2017 6:53 AM

        I'm not a big RE guy but I will buy it just for the extensive VR support if they release that on PC

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