Resident Evil 6 was announced on Jan. 17 and the news spread across the Internet like wildfire. Fans were making assumptions and getting wrapped up in the speculations; Journalism sites analyzed the trailer and threw in their own two cents on what it revealed. At the end of the trailer was a release month of November and thus the ticking countdowns on most fanboy’s pocket watches had begun. But underneath all of the hype and general excitement was a disturbing message: that a survival-horror franchise is going for the wallets of the Call of Duty fan base.
Not two days after the trailer, Capcom U.K.’s head of marketing, Dave Turner, described the more action-oriented route the series has taken over the past eight years as a logical one. “We’ve seen the popularity of Resident Evil increase massively as the series became more action oriented – Resident Evil 5 (2009) is the biggest seller in the series. So, it makes sense for us to follow this action area more fully.” When talking specifically about Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, a game that fully embraces the pace of an action game, Turner said that, “the dream would be that millions of Call of Duty fans that are enjoying these fast-paced online games are attracted to this Resident Evil.”
I do not have any loathing toward the Call of Duty franchise. It’s a very successful franchise and brings aspects of gaming to the non-gaming crowd, which I believe does more good than harm. But it’s when a developer openly sites the Call of Duty fan base as their target audience and starts adapting their survival-horror franchises into Call of Duty-style games is when I take issue with the publishers who want a piece of that Call of Duty pie. And it’s not just Capcom; developers have been integrating a perk system, which is additional abilities that individual players can add to their character, into multiplayer games ever since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare introduced them in 2007 to the general gaming community.
From my experiences with multiplayer games today, it makes it very difficult to buy a game a month to a year after its release date and be absolutely dominated by a team of guys that have “Improve Weapon Accuracy,” “Dropping a Live Grenade upon Death,” or “Invisibility on an enemy’s radar.” These perks make the playing field feel very unstable at times. The winners are determined by the perks they have chosen and not based on skill. But I digress.
The influence Call of Duty has had on this industry is staggering. It’s the 800-pound gorilla every developer is trying to survive in a room with. The multi-million dollar sales are indicative of this influence. But when developers take aspects of Call of Duty and start incorporating its elements into their own games, just because it’s the popular game at the time, brings to question their pedigree as game designers.
Send me your opinions on the influence of the Call of Duty franchise at shfawcet@asu.edu.
