Survival horror market too small, says Resident Evil dev

In recent years, the Resident Evil franchise has strayed from its survival horror roots into the action genre, and it's not likely to change course, according to the producer of the newly released 3DS game Resident Evil: Revelations.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Revelations producer Masachika Kawata said the series needs to follow the path taken in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, and even "take that a step further."

"Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games]...the market is small, compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell," Kawata said. "A 'survival horror' Resident Evil doesn't seem like it'd be able to sell those kind of numbers."

Kawata added that it's not necessary to make the series Call of Duty-like, but suggested that there may be room for the series to try the old survival horror approach or entirely new territory through a spin-off or side game. For example, the franchise branched out into the third-person squad-based shooter market with this week's debut of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.