EEDAR: Marketing Key to Resident Evil 5 Success

We recently reported on new findings from the folks at EEDAR. The firm's latest report, revealed this week during the [a]list Summit by Ayzenberg Group, showed that the top 10 selling games this year through June have been mostly dominated by older titles like Wii Fit or Mario Kart Wii. There were a few exceptions, and Capcom's blockbuster Resident Evil 5 was one of the big ones. The game is second in sales this year so far, only to Wii Fit. In fact, it's sold close to 2 million in the U.S. and around 5 million globally, making it the most successful entry in the franchise yet. 

So what did Capcom do differently this time? Besides the fact that they made a very good game, the marketing team really kicked it up a notch prior to launch, and this was critical to the title's success, EEDAR points out. 

“RE5 demolished sales comparatively to any other RE game... and obviously there was the movie that came out [Resident Evil: Extinction] and to an extent I think that helped, but you have to look at why this RE really broke out. Was it because this was just the right time for zombies (Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, zombies in Call of Duty: World at War, etc.)? Maybe, but I think their marketing campaign was really pushing the zombie element and getting people really excited about it. I think they just nailed an exciting zombie game with a mature franchise and a very experienced marketing team,” EEDAR executive chairman Greg Short told us.  

Capcom had a great Kijuju viral marketing campaign, and the company also did a great job pushing trailers. Getting trailers in front up consumers' eyes leading up to launch is always a good way to spark interest and potentially increase sales, and Capcom did just that. Indeed, Short pointed out that, according to GameTrailers.com StreamStats, RE5 saw 24.5 million media views, easily topping other big games like Capcom's own Street Fighter IV (17.5 million media views) and Sony's Killzone 2 (17 million media views).