After a hazy launch and delayed PC version, Capcom has stated that Ninja Theory’s reboot of the Devil May Cry franchise has shipped 1 million units this month on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. At the same time, Capcom went back and revised DmC: Devil May Cry‘s sales forecast, lowering it from shipping 2 million units (which they originally announced back last year) by March 31st of this year to 1.2 million units.
The previous game in the franchise, Devil May Cry 4 shipped over 2 million units in its first week back in 2008, which is still the highest shipping number the franchise has seen. Also, Devil May Cry 4 went on to sell over 2.6 to 3 million copies world wide, the best selling title in the franchise to date.
The PC numbers for the game are unaccounted for, but for what we see now, it’s quite obvious that DmC: Devil May Cry may have nothing left to prove. But Capcom certainly didn’t turn the tables on the fans of the franchise who were dissatisfied with the changes to characters and the fluid stylistic combat system they grew to love since the first installment. Besides being barely marketed, it was poorly brought to the public by having one of the worst PR spokesmen speak out for the game. Instead of trying to convince others that their version of DMC had something to offer, while being different, they went with the approach to attack the said fanbase, which looks to have backfired on them. Delaying the PC version out of fear of piracy could have also attributed to lower numbers. Ninja Theory’s portfolio is quite mixed on the reception side, so this could have turned off many gamers from trying out their latest offering.
Another question that comes was the fact of Capcom having Ninja Theory making drastic changes to an already niche IP at all was such a good idea in the first place, especially so late in the current console generation life span. Changes can make or break a game.That’s why, to many companies, having the familiar “same old same old” agenda is just the safer bet since you would be appealing to the people who would still give the game the time of day regardless of how long its been since the last game or of previous games quality. It was indeed a risk from the start with no guarantees. The reboot was bringing back a series that hasn’t had a game come out in 5 years, so that didn’t help matters; so interest from non-DMC fans most likely have waned.
This is all just speculation and theorizing on my part. As for now, things are not looking too good for the reboot so far. So is the series going to die here? Will the said fans get a Devil May Cry 5? Or will Capcom give Ninja Theory another chance to have at a sequel to DmC? We will have to wait and see if the game can catch a break in the coming weeks.
