PS3 Informer

Capcom Exec Says Real Gamers Abandoning Wii

The French are not known for their politeness, and Capcom France's director Antoine Seux had some very rude things to say about Nintendo's family-friendly Wii console. It seems that the publisher, whose games appeal more to an older hardcore audience, has not been having much recent success on the Wii. The executive was particularly unhappy about performance of its latest Resident Evil game, The Darkside Chronicles. This new Wii spinoff only managed to sell 16,000 copies in France since its release, a figure that Seux says was way below expectations.

This revelation comes from a recent interview with Japanese gaming magazine Sankaku Complex.

"With Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, all in all the numbers weren't too bad, but we won't lie, they were inferior to what we had hoped for. After three weeks we have a total of 16,000 units sold. We feel like there is a clear problem with that game's style on the Wii, where clearly gamers have moved on to something else.

Only two years ago, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles was a very big success on the Wii, but Wii customers have moved to games with a wider audience. It's a disappointment. Two years ago, we still had gamers on the Wii, people loyal to Nintendo who - it seems - have deserted this console in favor of the new generation," the Capcom executive said.

These comments by the European executive are a public relations nightmare for Capcom. Look for the company to quickly rescind these statements in an attempt to smooth things over with Nintendo. After all, even if Nintendo's market isn't full of hardcore gamers, it still represents the largest installed hardware base in the world -- on both handheld and home console platforms.

The problem for both Nintendo and third-party publishers is to convince serious gamers that their tastes will be satisfied by new releases on the DS and Wii platforms. For the past several years, a glut of casual games has solidified Nintendo's reputation as a purveyor of family fun, but not necessarily cutting-edge gaming experiences.

Check out a full list of 2010 game releases from Nintendo here.

Sales of Capcom's Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles were disappointing on the Wii.