Capcom: ‘Resident Evil 5 proves games more popular than music’
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Did you spend your weekend screeching with terror as slavering zombies clawed at you from every angle? No, us neither. But that’s why we avoid Yates’s Wine Bars. However, it seems plenty of people opted for a virtual form of such entertainment by buying console game Resident Evil 5. Its publisher, Capcom, is trumpeting its sales as proving that games are now more popular in the UK than music or film.
In a press release issued this morning (full text is at the bottom of this story), Capcom claims that Resident Evil 5 outsold every item on the UK singles chart (including physical and digital sales), and also beat the total sales to date of U2’s new album over the weekend alone.
“This is proof if any were needed that games are THE entertainment medium of choice in 2009,” says Capcom’s Leo Tan. “Thanks to its strong storyline, amazing graphics and compelling co-op play, Resident Evil 5 provides hundreds of hours of entertainment at a relatively low cost – and it’s this value for money that consumers are increasingly responding to.”
Quite. Res Evil 5 has shipped four million copies globally so far, although Capcom says its comparison with the singles chart and U2 album is based on UK sales only. The full press release is below.
Game Dramatically Outsells Singles, Albums, Films – Games Now Most Popular Entertainment Medium
Analyst predictions proved true as Resident Evil 5 flies off the shelves.
Videogames are now officially the UK’s favourite form of entertainment, as proved by sales of record-breaking new game Resident Evil 5 over the weekend.
Analysts* predicted that sales of games would outstrip sales of music and video in 2009 – and Resident Evil 5, the biggest game of the year so far, is proving them right.
Sales of the 18-rated blockbuster game eclipsed both film and music sales since its launch on Friday 13th March:
- Resident Evil 5 outsold EVERY ITEM in the UK Singles Chart (Based on physical and digital sales of UK Top 200)
- Resident Evil 5 outsold U2’s chart-topping new album’s total sales since release in ONE WEEKEND (in the UK)
- Resident Evil 5 grossed more than the top 5 movies in the UK this weekend – COMBINED (Source: IMDB.com)
- The Resident Evil franchise as a whole has sold 40 MILLION COPIES WORLD WIDE – that’s 1 copy for every 170 people in the world (based on a global population of 6,707 Million)
- Resident Evil 5 has shipped 4million copies worldwide to date
Leo Tan of Capcom said that “This is proof if any were needed that games are THE entertainment medium of choice in 2009. Thanks to its strong storyline, amazing graphics and compelling co-op play, Resident Evil 5 provides hundreds of hours of entertainment at a relatively low cost – and it’s this value for money that consumers are increasingly responding to”
Editors’ Notes
- *Verdict Research, November 2008
- The first title “Resident Evil” (“Biohazard” in Japan) launched in 1996 on Playstation and Saturn to wide-spread acclaim and phenomenal sales. It simultaneously established the new “Survival Horror” genre and a new era of adult targeted games.
- 53 titles in the franchise have been launched across all platforms and sales are in the region of 40 Million Units worldwide
- In addition to the games titles, Resident Evil is a best-selling film franchise with three instalments to date which have grossed approximately $350M worldwide making them the most successful films to be based on a video game. The CG film “Resident Evil: Degeneration” also launched in 2008.
- The latest games “Resident Evil 5″ launched in March and is the largest launch in the franchise’s history having sold over 4 Million units.
- Resident Evil 5 is out now, on PlayStation 3 and XBox360, rated 18, RRP £34.99
Tags: capcom, resident evil 5
March 19th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
… hundreds of hours of entertainment …. what fucking nonsens you wrote , the game is over after 10 hours …… don´t write about things you don´t understand. thx
March 19th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Hi Amiga, was that aimed at us? Maybe re-read the article and try and spot those little quote-mark shaped things around that particular section, eh? Thx.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
no.. it just proves that torrents are the rage and no one bothers to buy music anymore.. MP3s FTW… and fuck you metallica in yo face!
March 19th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Its all about piracy and this article overlooks the fact that Blu Ray discs can’t be copied. You can rip the information but can’t burn it onto a new disc and chip your PS3 to play it, like you could on the old PS1.
Commercial/popular music on the other hand is much more accessible illegally, as we all know. Hence, RE5 outsells music.
Thanks for stating the obvious music
ally
March 19th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Hey Ollie, thanks for your comment. I agree that the news says more about falling music sales than it does rising game sales.
But even so, the story is that Capcom is making this comparison – perhaps a more cynical headline would have been ‘Capcom states the obvious over RE5 sales’ – but it’s the publisher that’s decided to say this, not us.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
“Did you spend your weekend screeching with terror as slavering zombies clawed at you from every angle?” YOU F***ING RACIST BASTARD!
March 20th, 2009 at 2:34 am
What a shame that music from a game sold more singles than the cd’s did. Plus you can never go wrong killing zombies
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Somewhat ironic – Capcom flew a bunch of guys to LA for several days to record the music for the game with a rather large symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage. Yes, the game outsold the music – but let’s not forget how integral the music is to the game.
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