THE CURRENT STATE OF SURVIVAL HORROR

[@Jon0387]

The last two years has been amazing for Survival Horror games: Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, Callisto Protocol, Alan Wake 2, Alone in the Dark and the Upcoming Silent Hill 2. It seemed the Genre was back in full force, it would be a shame if it future games don’t get made due to low sales.

[@Maxx________]

You only mentioned bigger releases but there have also been just as many if not more great indie survival horror games

[@Chaso-1124]

Pretty mid games to be honest. Survival horror hasn't been that great lately. I would say the best one to come out recently was tormented souls

[@sikevillain]

Tormented Souls, Signalis, Conscript,...

[@Chris9699]

December 2022 (Callisto Protocol) until March 2024 (Alone in the Dark) was one the best moments for me 😍😍😍 all those games, it was like the best era for survivor horror.

[@sikevillain]

@@Chris9699 folks hated Callisto Protocol so bad lol I actually loved it

[@Elfangel85]

SH will never be as mainstream and profitable as RE, I won't be surprised if Konami drops it again.

[@Football-knowledge1]

Sadly accurate

[@mr.sinjin-smyth]

Wouldn't be a surprise. If SH2 Remake is so very fortunate, it will manage at best over 1 million units months after it's release. Putting it on par with Alan Wake 2.

[@pr6046]

@@mr.sinjin-smyth and I will be one of those millions . Can’t wait for silent hill 2

[@destho4308]

I'm rooting for the Fatal Frame series to continue on.

[@Sacciuiguai]

Currently I'm playing The Callisto Protocol for the first time, the game has fantastic environment and great graphics/sound but the gameplay is clunky and oddly stiff sometimes. I feel like DS is still the better game but i'm loving my time playing TCP so far.

[@steviemac2377]

Yeah the melee and dodge definitely needed some tweaks to it. It was a huge complaint when the game first came out but they never did much to fix it unfortunately

[@iREVENTONZ]

You have to realize that Resident Evil is the only true 'mainstream' horror franchise. Being in the horror community Dead Space and Silent Hill for example are some of the bigger horror franchises but in comparison to RE they're completely dwarfed sales wise. They might be big staples in the horror community but not in video games overall. Dead Space and Silent Hill have never in history outsold an RE game (off the top of my head) and they've never hit big like RE in the mainstream. But even with that being said 2 million copies for the Dead Space remake is actually really good for Dead space. That's more sales than the original Dead Space and Dead Space 3 only topped by Dead Space 2 which has 4 million sold. EA just completely overestimated how much money they'd make from the game even though they had evidence to support that Dead Space wasn't this massively popular franchise like RE. I expect the same for Silent Hill 2 Remake, around 2 million copies somewhere around there at least. To me that would be really good sales for a franchise such as Silent Hill. The problem is that the companies expectations are to be as big as Resident Evil which is just never going to happen. As for Alone in the Dark I really enjoyed that game too and I agree with you when you say it will become a hidden gem in the future but again the publisher had too much of an expectation that Alone in the Dark would sell amazingly even tho it hasn't been big since the 90's/early 2000's arguably. It's more about expectations rather than lack of interest from fans.

[@CannibalRitual]

Well said!

[@sonicmoore6196]

Just because Resident Evil is popular doesn’t mean it’s the best horror franchise of all time…

[@iREVENTONZ]

@@sonicmoore6196 yeah true, popularity doesn't always equate to quality. You can see that in the RE franchise itself with RE5 and RE6 being some of the most sold but not the best necessarily.

[@mr.sinjin-smyth]

The only true horror game IP that has sold very well outside the Resident Evil series has been Outlast, which has garnered 15+ million lifetime unit sales thus far. If we are taking about horror games with the classic inventory management style, then only Dead Space, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark, and Dino Crisis have managed over 5+ million lifetime unit sales. There's no question that horror gaming is just a very niche genre.

[@jaysony8587]

Dead Space is literally considered one of the greatest video games ever made. Don’t undermine it like that.

[@killerVeNoM101]

SquareEnix needs to get off their ass and get Parasite Eve 1 & 2 remade already.

[@BILLs_pkmnPC]

Wait till Dino crisis gets a face lift. Been waiting a while now, I can feel it coming.

[@LandofBrickForests]

Also, i agree, crow country was great. I really enjoyed my time with that game and i hope they can cook up a sequel sometime in the future.

[@cookiescream1993]

Dead space was the perfect remake. I feel like it sold well but the expectations from EA were resident evil numbers which is not feasible out the gate. It’s a shame cause the devs knocked it out the park. Same for alone in the dark it may be the smartest remake with how it tied in the series lore. Loved the style and presentation of that one.

[@travisgeorge1553]

You may want to ignore it, but, the culture war controversies, are largely to blame for all games failing. Sad to hear Dead Space didn't sell well, but, they shot themselves in the foot by injecting modern day politics into it. It'll be even worse for SH2 R, we're all ready fully aware, of what having a consultancy group being involved means. As for Alone In The Dark, it was just bland and generic. Just another RE clone, with AITD skins. Callisto Protocol, was just a bad formula. Can't sustain horror vibes, when you want the enemies to close the distance, so you can play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, with updated graphics. Alan Wake 2, is a double doosie. Not only injecting aforementioned modern politics, but, also making it an exclusive P.C. side. Most people don't like Epic Games being forced on them. I fell for this BS, when it came to the Evil Dead game. Now my games randomly close on me, so they can inject weird ads on my desktop.

[@vengefulretreat]

In order to have competition, you need competing developers to actually strive for the utmost quality. If mainstream publishers are content focusing on remakes or rehashing old ideas, diminishing returns will eventually set in. Capcom is already circling the drain in terms of what they can realistically remake from their classic library. Alone in the Dark cost $50 and was absolutely abysmal compared to most of the indie titles in the genre from the last few years. The Callisto Protocol is like, the epitome of AAA garbage and somehow was even worse after patches and updates. Signalis, Conscript, My Friendly Neighborhood, Tormented Souls, Crow Country, Plastomorphosis, Alisa, Lamentum, Evil Tonight, Amnesia: The Bunker, Darkwood, Lone Survivor, Endoparasitic, and even some of the weaker entries like Heaven Dust, Daymare, and Them and Us still run circles around most modern AAA attempts at the genre in terms of overall imagination and quality. These developers clearly understand what makes the genre tick more than anyone in the mainstream AAA sphere. And with all the upcoming indie survival horror titles, we may have a chance to completely bury mainstream publishers once and for all. Here is a short list of indie survival horror titles slated for release within the next year: Heartworm Tormented Souls II Sorry We're Closed Tenebris Somnia Samurai Unicorn Compound Fracture Tokyo Stories Inanima Full Fathom Post Trauma Hollow Body Becrowned Echoes of the Living Holstin Stygian: Outer Gods Drowned Lake There are even more than this, I just figured that this list was enough to get the point across.

[@mr.sinjin-smyth]

The Sinking City 2, and Connections The Nightmare Within are also worth mentioning.

[@Football-knowledge1]

I enjoyed alone in the dark!! I really didn’t knew they shut down the studio this genuinely made me sad

[@madameaimy2150]

Play Tormented Souls 2 which will release soon 🎉

[@nintendylan7449]

No release date yet

[@madameaimy2150]

@@nintendylan7449 I mean when it will be launched

[@shrimplypimple3541]

Can't wait for this game.

[@Batman.2-ht6uk]

Amazing channel 👏

[@kennethwolf1763]

The someone answer is that AAA has a different audience then indie for horror. How you breakthrough and make something for normies and is fun is very hard to do.

[@holyflame2]

I really want the new Alone in the Dark to succeed, it seems whoever owns the IP keeps giving it to incompetent devs and just tarnish the franchise even more. While the new one is not that bad, i'm afraid due to it's low sales it might forever bury the IP forever.

[@gamedotfilm3929]

Crow Country and Conscript are 2 of my fav 2024 games this year. Survival horror is treating me good lately

[@LandofBrickForests]

Yeah, besides resident evil, it really does seem like the genre is doing well particularly well for the devs in the indie side of things. In general, there seems to be a lot more survival horror games being made by indie studios than triple A ones.

[@VybeX-]

part of me believes that Echoes of The Living will take the lead since Resident evil abandoned its fixed camera / tank controls style of gameplay and replaced it with typical first person / over the shoulder / action-oriented style of play.

[@pyopyonyo3222]

Silent Hill was never intended to be survival horror, it was a psychological horror with very clunky combat. Fans don't want SH2 remake to be turned into Resident Evil because that was not the point. The point was the story, characters and the Other world. Survival horror in general is not as popular as 3A CEO's think these games should not have huge budgets because they will not sell gangbusters. Indie games do well for themselves because they are not all that expensive to make and teams are small. Resi is different, Capcom has years of experience and templates to work with also own amazing engine to complement that. Lastly recommendation - play Still wakes the Deep, by far best horror game this year.

[@fryingenigmas5456]

Bro you deserve so many more views and subs bro. You are officially one of the og re channels

[@bluehornet632]

Unpopular opinion: People SAY they like survival horror games or horror games in general ... but they are still niche. I think REs reinvention with RE7 brought the games into a new streaming era that made experiencing the games a must for streamers and by proxy their fanbases in a way that FNAF had done. These other remakes are either too complicated, havent had any pop culture IP attached to them in decades (we have TONS of Anderson RE films, CG films etc) Usually theres only really room for one series to be the go to for streamers like Minecraft, Fortnite, BG3 etc. Not to mention how memeable the recent RE games became with Lady D and Mr. X. On top of that Capcom has been making the unveiling of each new RE game year long events it gets more exposure than most of these other horror games do.

[@jeremyf1901]

I would bet money their sales expectations are unrealistic. Dead Space has so much potential in the later games that could make it on par with RE if they really put the effort in.

[@edoliva3264]

I honestly think that Horror whether games or movies have to abide by two universal rules. Keep your production budgets low and word of mouth has to be positive. Capcom is the exception to both of these rules. Resident Evil has become the Star Wars of Horror, its become too big to fail IMO.

[@jameswulfgang154]

I feel that for the most part, Survival horror has always thrived more in the indie scene. We have a few breakout titles that hit mega mainstream status but at the end of the day, if you're not Resident Evil, which is more action focused "horror" now, you're not pulling in enough money to keep going.

[@steazfactor3637]

I honestly feel like ea’s expected sales numbers are unrealistic for a survival horror game but that’s just me.. either way the dead space remake is awesome

[@Dharoz]

I think you would benefit from listening to a podcast like Play Watch Listen which has people from multiple aspects of game development who frequently collaborate with triple a developers and are always sharing information of how the designing-development-publishing cycle works. The TLDR: publishers listen to share holders and sale numbers more than to anything else, specially western publishers, hence why Indies have more successful stories in the horror genre.

[@thesuspensenetwork]

I just finished my first playthrough of the Dead Space Remake on my channel. It was amazing. I felt The Callisto Protocol received so much undeserved bile from the gaming community.

[@Vordhosbn_]

I guess people are so broke...We can't afford the prices...

[@CannibalRitual]

Ancient Chinese proverb, brother: Where as Capcom took their time building up to a bonfire, EA seemingly expected an instantaneous volcanic eruption ascending to the Heavens. Resident Evil 7 carried with it a fair bit of intrigue on account of being something new and a departure from what the series was, and where it was at the time right prior to 7. It was met with a generally favorable reception, but then on came RE2make, etc., which helped rebuild a lot of hype, enthusiasm and trust in the series (RE3make controversies aside). Point is, that success wasn't really single-handed or overnight occurring. It was built upon. EA is a company that's far from having the best reputation and has had a track record of burning bridges with fans. So with the Dead Space remake, I'm sure a fair number of fans had some amount of skepticism toward the game; perhaps expecting the worst while hoping for the best. Not all were willing to make it a day one purchase. Point here is that EA didn't permit themselves to rebuild a sense of trust with the fan base. Apparently the game didn't sell like cheap euphoric smack to a malnourished scab-riddled zombie junkie, so they decided to pull the plug on any potential future endeavors with the series and just doomed it as a failure while continuing to look like heels to the fans who'll continue to carry that same skepticism toward them. Gee, I wonder why their sheeeeit don't sell...

[@driedmango1914]

I think there’s room for more PS2 quality launches in terms of graphics. We’re seeing sales below expectations for a lot of AAA games. The everyday consumer can only buy so many per year. Even I have a backlog of titles that are right up my alley, but I only have so much time between work and the other obligations. These big titles have massive budgets due to increasing expectations on graphics, frame rate, etc. Therefore also causing the massive sales expectations to hit profit targets. The sting companies are feeling can potentially cause developers to make more AA games. Something between indie and AAA that will require less sales units to make a profit..

[@anssil5640]

I think that while the Dead Space Remake was a really good game and I enjoyed playing it, the timing of the release was maybe a bit off. The original DS was released in 2008, and it was a PS3/360 game. While it is true that it is already a 16-year-old game, the graphics of the original and everything still hold very well today. There are not many remakes from the PS3/360 era, and I think the time is not quite yet. DS is also one of those games that, if you didn’t play them 11-16 years ago, chances are that it’s a bit of a niche franchise for younger and otherwise newer gamers (compared to Resident Evil, for example). One other thing is that while DS Remake had some new and expanded areas, it was still quite a 1:1 remake of the original. This being said and that the original graphics, etc. still hold up, perhaps a remastered version of the DS 1-3 would have been enough, and then a totally new DS4 after those. If they only remade the first one, that’s a big missed opportunity and wasted assets.

[@NadiaGerassimenko]

All these games are wonderful, but they are also niche. The publishers look at the sales numbers and think it's disastrous, when in fact, for a niche genre, it's quite good. Thus unfortunately all these studios close down. I'm the most sad about Tango Gameworks closing. Their games are unique and immersive.

[@CBash31]

Personally, I enjoyed Callisto Protocol and would have welcomed a sequel. Dead Space remake is great, and I'm still holding out hope for a DS2 Remake. We'll see how SH2 R shakes out. Really hoping for it to be high quality and praying it gets the franchise back on track.

[@steelcurtain187]

I think all of the horror genre is thriving right now and it’s definitely been one of the best times for it since the early 2000’s. The indies have been incredible

[@Gannon115]

I hope Konami considers 1 million sales between pc and ps5 a success for how niche this series has been. To me Konami let the silent hill devs keep things weird and interesting, making it less accessible for the average person. Resident evil has always been “ square crank in the square hole” accessible vs silent hills having to know Shakespeare to solve puzzles. As much as some of us may of disliked RE8 , it sold gangbusters, so we might have to accept silent hill going more that route if we want it to thrive and grow.

[@frankkennedy6388]

I was still hoping for "The Evil Within 3", especially after "Hi-Fi Rush" was apparently popular on Xbox. But of course it didn't meet sales expectations and now Tango Gameworks are dead😡

[@dukaiistvan3095]

2023 Dead Space failed because they wanted to sell it like a remake but it wasnt. It was basically the 2008 game with a graphical upgrade. You cant just fool people and expect to be successful...

[@AFalk86]

I like Dead space remake, Callisto protocol and tormented souls. I'm happy that tormented souls will get a sequel. I really hope the silent hill 2 remake is good. I feel like blooper team have there heart in the right place and that they love the original game. Let's just hope that the game runs good and isn't full off problems and glitches.

[@BrendanB-j4c]

It does suck that AAA horror does so bad except for Resident Evil of course. I hope Silent Hill 2 and Dead Rising Remake do well, but judging by how things have went they will probably both disappoint, and both will die off again

[@bipolarexpress9827]

5:50 yeah, that’s the problem. It’s $60 lol no shot the new alone in the dark is worth that.

[@Ozone814]

lets just enjoy dead rising next month!

[@Michaelrojas24]

I beat it alreadyyy

[@nickkempen9778]

Im scared no matter what happens, some people will be upset with Silent Hill 2 remake and it will tank and then even Silent Hill f gets canceled.

[@nickinman3513]

Will you make.more videos about the dead rising remaster or no?

[@jaredcellucci8846]

The only one who can is capcom with resident evil

[@raven80wolfx2]

Dead space still a stutter mess on pc.

[@koulor315]

Tormented souls 2 still waiting and I wanna play echoes of the living so bad

[@SilentHillHallows]

A lot of the indies I keep seeing are just cheap clones re2 remake 🤪

[@kingshadow8782]

Hey Anthony!

[@joji197]

Dont wanna start drama but i enjoyed Callisto Protocol waaay more than Dead Space idk why cuz i love dead space but the remake felt so soulless to me or more like something was missing idk it just didn’t hit 4 me like Callisto did. RIP to Callisto Protocol also 🫡 felt like i was the only fan of the game. Gotta try Alone in the Dark doe