Capcom: Resident Evil 6 Will Sell 7 Million Copies

Capcom previously said that they intended for Resident Evil 6 to be the biggest game yet in the series. In their latest report to investors, they got a little more specific. They estimate that they'll sell seven million copies by the end of their fiscal year on March 31st, 2013.

The projections for their other big releases in this fiscal year are more conservative. They expect DmC: Devil May Cry to sell two million. Dragon's Dogma will sell 1.5 mil. Lost Planet 3, expected to arrive in early 2013, is projected to sell 1.4 mil. In other words, Capcom expects the combined sales for all three to be less than RE6's take.

One-year sales of seven million copies would make Resident Evil 6 the fastest-selling game in the series by far. Resident Evil 5, the best-selling RE game thus far, sold 5.8 million copies as of June 2011. Capcom's projecting RE6 to not only match RE5's two-year total within four months, but also surpass it by over a million. Now that's optimism.

To be fair, Resident Evil 6 is designed to appeal to a mass audience. The game has three distinct campaigns. The first, starring Chris Redfield, is action-oriented like RE5. Leon Kennedy's campaign more closely resembles the traditional survival horror experience from earlier games in the series. Newcomer Jake Muller headlines a campaign that plays more like a supernatural brawler. Capcom's trying to please every RE fan out there and bring in some newcomers as well. I think they're right to say that it has the most sales potential of any game in the series.

RE6 will launch on the PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 2nd. They haven't dated the PC version, but that bit of uncertainty apparently hasn't dampened their optimism.