Dead Rising 2's Keiji Inafune and his desire to 'replace the Resident Evil franchise'
"The goal for Dead Rising 2 is to replace the Resident Evil franchise and become the number one IP within Capcom," Keiji Inafune told Eurogamer. It's a lofty claim -- according to Capcom's own data, Street Fighter is the company's top franchise. Still, taking down the Resident Evil franchise first is no easy task. Unlike Capcom's other properties, the company's original survival-horror game has the mainstream appeal to support three successful Hollywood adaptations (with a fourth one opening this week). The last iteration of the series sold over 5 million copies. Dead Rising, on the other hand, sold 1.6 million.
Dead Rising has big shoes to fill, but it's that lofty ambition that pushes good game design, Inafune argues. "Unless you have a big goal to strive for, you can't create a good game. Therefore, if the Dead Rising franchise takes over the Resident Evil franchise, a new game I come up with will obviously strive to go over Dead Rising. That's the goal I set out for any title I decide to create."
If Dead Rising 2 becomes the success Inafune wants it to be, we wonder what the next big idea from Capcom will be. Another IP with even more zombies?
