Sales Analysis/Community Reception
The Evil Within was a widely well received title and had no problem selling across all of the three major platforms (PS4, Xbox1, PC). Although certain game critics believed the approach to the games design was a little dated, the playerbase of the game had no complaints. The Evil Within took the survival horror genre back the roots it was developed from where tension was high, survivability was slim, and horror was the primary focus. The genre nowadays is riddled with games that put more emphasis on gore rather than making the player question the choices they make. The game was such a success on release that a second game was developed and released but sadly did receive as much success as the first. Across the three major platforms alone the game managed to sell upwards two million copies. The game received the highest praise commonly among European countries. The game managed to sell this well due to the developers effective manipulation of the uncanny. Unfortunately the developers seemed to have lost their touch when developing the second game so a third installment seems unlikely. As popular as the survival horror genre is and with the immense number of studios competing for the next major title release there is a hope that game studios will return to the grassroots origin of the horror genre putting an emphasis back on immersion.
If fans of the survival horror genre continue to slowly dwindle from lack of games focusing on immersion and psychological horror the genre may have a falling out. As Kirkland stated with the trope of zombies or horror games, “the zombie may be a metaphor for the process of video game engagement, representing the avatar without player, the computer controlled figure, without the human soul to make it truly alive.” If games continue on a path of gore heavy, immersion lacking content where the player truly has little impact on the embodiment of the avatar, the relationship between the double of the physical and virtual embodiment will die and along with it the survival horror genre.
