Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 Ships 4 Million Units

Capcom Japan has announced it has shipped a total of 4 million units of Resident Evil 5 worldwide, following its launch earlier in the month. The first title in the series to be released simultaneously on multiple platforms (the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), the game’s shipment numbers mirror that of its demo download total –- which also stands at 4 million. Although the game has not enjoyed quite the unequivocal critical reaction as its immediate forebear, it has already hit the number one spot in Japan with almost 400,000 combined unit sales in its first week. The game is also expected to make the number one spot in the UK charts tomorrow, but as usual, specific sales figures are unlikely to be available. The initial shipment figure is the largest in the series’ history to date, which as a whole has shipped over 40 million units since the first game appeared on the original PlayStation in 1996. The series has also been a considerable licensing success for Capcom, with the three live action Resident Evil films having achieved combined sales of over $300 million. The recent CG straight-to-video movie Resident Evil: Degeneration - which takes place within the game series’ continuity - has also shipped over 1.5 million units. Capcom describes this cross media approach as its “Single Contents Multiple Usage” strategy, and also includes books, cell phones and other merchandise. Although the strategy has not worked as effectively with recent movie Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the company already has a film adaption of Lost Planet in the works.