Ambitious Expectations for Dead Rising Series

Capcom hopes its Dead Rising zombie series will one day replace its other iconic zombie series Resident Evil. Speaking with Eurogamer Capcom's head of global research and development Keiji Inafune said that "The goal for Dead Rising 2 is to replace the Resident Evil franchise and become number one IP within Capcom".

With Dead Rising 2 set for release later this month, it will have to do incredibly well to imitate the success of the Resident Evil series, with the last game in the series (Resident Evil 5) selling almost 5 million units and the series in total selling an approximately 44 million units.

It is not known the reasons behind Capcom’s ambition for Dead Rising to be more successful than Resident Evil. The Resident Evil series have been amazingly successful and there is a strong following of the series that have even spawned Hollywood blockbuster movies.

However this may be a case of an idealistic goal designed to inspire "As a creator, the sales and marketing part aside, unless you have a big goal to strive for you can't create a good game" says Keiji Inafune.

Whether consumers will embrace Dead Rising as warmly as the Resident Evil series is yet to be seen. Keiji Inafune confirmed there will be a sequel but that will be dependent on the sale performance of Dead Rising 2 "Until Dead Rising 2 sells we probably can't start talking about spin-offs”.

With original Dead Rising game an Xbox 360 exclusive it seems that Capcom is attempting at diversifying and expanding the series. This time around Dead Rising 2 will be available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and is set for release later on this month in New Zealand on the 24th of September 2010.