Is the mainstream much more familiar with the Resident Evil movies than the games?

[BarkeyForeman]

I was at a local thrift store this morning and I saw an old man about 60s range getting a copy of the fourth Resident Evil movie and lining up. I tried to start a conversation and his response is that he told me he doesn't know what survivor horror is. When I told him that is the genre Resident Evil is, he responded he didn't know zombie movies were considered survival horror. I actually told him its a video game genre and eventually I had to inform him Resident Evil started as games and he replied he didn't know that and asked me if computers can play the game. I told him I'll give him a copy of some of them games and to visit my apartment (if possible, also to bring his PC if its a laptop) when he has time which he said he'll try this weekend.

With that said I must point out I currently am living in Italy. One of the shocks I had coming from America was how gaming tends to be viewed as inappropriate and at best something a fully grown proper adult should maybe spend a few hours diddly daddlying for free time when there is something else to do. But GOD no, an adult shouldn't be playing games as one of his main hobbies and it would bring the stigma of "manchild". So it was pretty significant to see a 60 year old (an age of "settling down into wisdom") buying the Resident Evil film at first because I thought he was also a fan of the games.

So I ask if the general public is more familiar with Resident Evil than the movies? Because I was pretty shocked today when I learned how well the Resident Evil films did at the Box office. To the point its the highest grossing film franchise based on a video game ever made and each film has individually grossed over $100 Million in the box office.

Indeed I remember seeing review on Amazons with appraise coming from non-fans of the games.

So I am wondering about this. Have any of you had the above experience I did?

 

[La Femme Fatale]

I do think that the RE films are a bit more mainstream than the games (and they certainly do absurdly well at the box office for being so mediocre), but I would probably chalk it more up to films in general being more accessible to the public than video games. While it is true that there is a bit of a stigma with adults playing games, flipping on Netflix or attending a movie theatre are considerably cheaper hobbies than gaming, especially if buying retail.

 

[Turo602]

That's tough to say. While gaming isn't a massively popular hobby around the world, I think it's been around long enough for people to have become familiar with certain IPs. Now I don't think those Resident Evil films got so popular based on their great quality... Resident Evil was a massively successful franchise from the start, and has only gotten more and more popular. I think it's fair enough to say that the name Resident Evil is as big as say, Mario? And name recognition can definitely go a long way, just look at the Transformers franchise.

 

[bSTAR_182]

There are live action movies based on Resident Evil? :biggrin:

 

[MisterScott]

I was at a local thrift store this morning and I saw an old man about 60s range getting a copy of the fourth Resident Evil movie and lining up. I tried to start a conversation and his response is that he told me he doesn't know what survivor horror is. When I told him that is the genre Resident Evil is, he responded he didn't know zombie movies were considered survival horror. I actually told him its a video game genre and eventually I had to inform him Resident Evil started as games and he replied he didn't know that and asked me if computers can play the game. I told him I'll give him a copy of some of them games and to visit my apartment (if possible, also to bring his PC if its a laptop) when he has time which he said he'll try this weekend.

With that said I must point out I currently am living in Italy. One of the shocks I had coming from America was how gaming tends to be viewed as inappropriate and at best something a fully grown proper adult should maybe spend a few hours diddly daddlying for free time when there is something else to do. But GOD no, an adult shouldn't be playing games as one of his main hobbies and it would bring the stigma of "manchild". So it was pretty significant to see a 60 year old (an age of "settling down into wisdom") buying the Resident Evil film at first because I thought he was also a fan of the games.

So I ask if the general public is more familiar with Resident Evil than the movies? Because I was pretty shocked today when I learned how well the Resident Evil films did at the Box office. To the point its the highest grossing film franchise based on a video game ever made and each film has individually grossed over $100 Million in the box office.

Indeed I remember seeing review on Amazons with appraise coming from non-fans of the games.

So I am wondering about this. Have any of you had the above experience I did?

Honestly I don't think the games or the movies are particularly mainstream, the old man you were speaking to sounds like somebody who heard of the franchise from hearsay but didn't really have any experience with it at all until he brought the DVD, if you were to ask random people walking down the street if they know about Resident Evil most probably have seen bits and pieces of the games of or one of the movies but know little about its universe almost everyone knows there are zombies involved but they most likely do not known that there are also all sort of BOWs involved and most likely known nothing about the games characters meaning to the average shallow person Resident Evil to them is little more than a another rip off of the Walking Dead, I would say that the movies are slightly better known among the general public due to the extensive marketing the movies were given but the games are more iconic among people who have more extensive knowledge of pop culture, I think that the franchise beginning with first game could've been more of a pop culture phenomenon but simply put while a lot of copies of the game were sold the story is not well known because it was a hard game and most people who brought it never finished it so that's probably why the film adaptation was very loosely inspired because they never expected many of us to know the story well to begin with, it's easier to sit through the movie for non gamers than to put in the effort to finish the game.

 

[Cure Zombrex]

The movies are some half-ass Hollywood bull crap. That part is true. The games, sad to say, could be on their way out too. Think about Konami. Think about how 'Silent Hill' used to be the leading survival horror franchise, besides RE of course. Think how that all went to hell after Team Silent broke up. In a similar way, what happened to RE after Shinji left? It has been handled so wrongfully, indeed.

There is no passion coming from these people any more, because they're happy to let a bunch of hacks work on their franchises that probably never played the original first four to five entries, then just stop the series because they don't have it in them to do anything besides pachinko machines. Capcom let somebody else work on Not a Hero like how Konami gifted 'Silent Hill' to these nobodies. That's sad. Then they're actually surprised that they got a half-ass product, when it could have come from the legends themselves. I've often wondered if perhaps these legends aren't even there as employees any more in any major capacity, because they either must have simply quit their jobs or they secretly got fired to avoid a backlash, but they got a fat sum to shut up about it, because I think a lot of companies are heading into dire straits, because it ain't just RE either that Capcom has to handle the backlash with. If they tarnish all these franchises, that'll be it.

Capcom is of the belief that RE 7 was a kind of kiss and make up apology. We love you. Come back. It will be all fine again. Nope! That doesn't work. Just several years ago, they almost got canned and kind of passed the blame onto us fans for buying the trash and supporting the stuff that they put out. The very same fans that commanded respect and patiently awaited a product we wanted to see, but are still waiting. I've really no hope for the RE 2 remake. After 2 years, where's the clips, demo footage or images on the Internet to verify that it is really going ahead? There's been pretty much only a big fat load of nothing. So as long as the fans that kiss their butts allow them to promote garbage, the true fans will be buried. And I know and I'm sure you do too know, that all the sequels will be stand alone titles with no story development. What occurs in one game will rot there and then, and likely be ignored, so they'll do a new game in 3 years from now, with maybe a classic character cameo, but a story about a new virus or parasite that is so unrelated to what we've been getting up to this point in time. Capcom just hasn't any ideas on where to go next. All these ideas are possibly being exhausted in one game, then they do an entirely different game with no actual continuation 2 years later, so it's a bit of a mess, am I correct? This has been the case with practically anything RE related at all. So why do it if that's not their goal? They don't actually have a consistent story flow any longer, nor a real long term villain that gets people talking in the same manner that we supported the motives of Albert Wesker, so none of what they churn out has made any real sense. Or so you would think.