Resident Evil 6 failed to meet Capcom sales expectations due to development 'challenges,' inadequate marketing

"Challenges" during development and "inadequate organizational collaboration" led to Resident Evil 6 performing beneath Capcom's expectations, the company stated in a Q&A accompanying its recent financial earnings report.

Capcom said that while it believes having sold 5 million copies of the game is "proof that [Resident Evil 6] is a popular title," it has not reached a "clear conclusion" regarding its under-performance. The company is looking into potential causes within its internal development and sales divisions, though Capcom places part of the blame on inadequate marketing for the game.

"We believe that the new challenges we tackled at the development stage were unable to sufficiently appeal to users," Capcom wrote. "In addition, we believe there was inadequate organizational collaboration across our entire company with regard to marketing, promotions, the creation of plans and other activities.

"We will have to examine these results from several perspectives," the company added. "We will reexamine our internal operating frameworks in order to identify areas that need to be improved concerning development as well as sales and administrative operations."

During an earnings call with investors earlier this week, Capcom said that despite having "brisk sales" at launch and being a significant contribution to company profits, Resident Evil 6 "lost its momentum" in the following weeks, "resulting in the failure to achieve planned sales and fulfill its role as a driver of sales expansion."