Masachika Kawata, the producer behind Resident Evil: Revelations, recently gave an interview with Gamasutra in which he discussed the future of the Resident Evil franchise and what this means for the sixth instalment in the game’s series.

When looking at the North American market, Kawata believes that the “primary” Resident Evil games might profit more from an action-oriented direction. RE4 and 5 were the first to strive away from their survival horror roots and they did so with success.

“Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games] … the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell,” Kawata explained. “A ‘survival horror’ Resident Evil doesn’t seem like it’d be able to sell those kind of numbers.”

He went on to say, “I can’t really speak for Resident Evil 6, but I don’t think that it necessarily has to go all the way in that [action-heavy] direction, the Call of Duty direction. It doesn’t have to be a straight up shooter. But my impression is that Resident Evil 4 and 5 aren’t shooters, per se.”

The interview closes with the statement by Kawata that if Capcom wishes to develop titles based on quality content, they must be able to appeal to players around the world, which is why games like Skyrim or Call of Duty are sold in Japan.

However I believe he is wrong in treating their fanbase, as if it was the mainstream market. Surely, Resident Evil 4 was able to combine horror and action elements to create a fresh experience, and RE5 was able to keep on “going in that direction” as Kawata puts it, though hearing that the action elements should be amplified and that characters are being added, to appeal to the today’s generation of gamers, has me concerned.

When we look at how the new Dante in DMC is supposed to be more contemporary or how BioWare decided to add characters such as Vega into Mass Effect for the current market, my worries are increasingly directed towards developers and not simply the publishers.

Trying to adapt a series to the market, in hopes for better sales figures, should not be a factor in a games development, but what artistic and gameplay elements set a title aside from others.

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