Resident Evil Sells 2.5 Million and Demo Downloaded 7 Million Times

Resident Evil 7 is looking to be the first big blockbuster of 2017 as Capcom releases sales numbers.

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Capcom has shipped 2.5 million copies of Resident Evil 7 so far. The revitalization of the survival horror classic seems to be just what the franchise needed to become potent again in the eyes of consumers. Capcom also reports that the Resident Evil 7 demo has been downloaded 7 million times over the platforms for which it's available.

Capcom gives part of the credit for Resident Evil 7's success to the new RE ENGINE, developed specifically for Resident Evil 7. Capcom says the RE ENGINE pushes current hardware specs to their limits, allowing for the great gameplay and visual fidelity RE7 offers.

We played Resident Evil 7, and our review points out just how great we think the title is. If you're playing Resident Evil 7, make sure and check out our RE7 guides and walkthrough section for helpful tips and hints on how to complete the game.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 27, 2017 6:25 AM

    Jason Faulkner posted a new article, Resident Evil Sells 2.5 Million and Demo Downloaded 7 Million Times

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      January 27, 2017 6:36 AM

      Has anyone played this on PS4-VR? How was it?

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        January 27, 2017 7:31 AM

        When you die in VR, you die in real life.

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          January 27, 2017 8:56 AM

          the body cannot live without the mind

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          January 27, 2017 9:45 AM

          Hardcore mode, huh? I can see that appealing to a certain crowd

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        January 27, 2017 8:01 AM

        a shacker is doing his PSVR run through on Twitch. Solrflare? I watched part of his VOD yesterday, looked nice and spooky.

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        January 27, 2017 9:17 AM

        Wouldn't recommend playing the whole game with it. It's pretty cool, but it's more of a game that's "compatible with PSVR," than a game "made for PSVR."

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          January 27, 2017 9:32 AM

          I agree with the second sentence but still totally disagree with he first. You gain far more from VR than you lose IMO.

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            January 27, 2017 9:34 AM

            That rather depends on your tolerance for it's movement scheme. Some (and I'm included) will be fine with it. Others most definitely will not.

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              January 27, 2017 9:38 AM

              I learned last night that even if you only need glasses a little bit they make a huge difference in VR.

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                January 27, 2017 10:22 AM

                Depends; the resolution is still low enough that a lot of people can do without them.

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                  January 27, 2017 11:08 AM

                  It may be because I have an astigmatism, but the "sweet spot" for focus without glasses was very small and even then it would have blurry bits. With glasses the sweet spot is a lot larger and the lack of blur makes it's much less disorienting. It seems like with this tech individual mileage will vary greatly, and that's probably one of the biggest challenges going forward. Right now I'd just kill for an outward facing camera so I could find my water.

                  The room for growth may be the most exciting thing in the end. This is like a proof of concept.

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                    January 27, 2017 11:22 AM

                    I'm sure it varies with the individual a lot, yeah. My parents were both fine trying the rift out sans glasses.

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        January 27, 2017 9:30 AM

        It's totally fantastic. Revitalizing.

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          January 27, 2017 9:34 AM

          Should mention I played on a Pro and don't get motion sickness.

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        January 27, 2017 11:16 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 27, 2017 12:13 PM

        [deleted]

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      January 27, 2017 7:54 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 27, 2017 8:19 AM

      As an aside I've been playing through the RE:Make on Steam and I had no idea how fucking good Resident Evil 1 is.

      I played RE1 (the demo, over and over again) on my PC back in like 1998 or whatever, and I loved it, but the REmake has actually turned it into a supremely effective horror game.

      The mansion is amazing, tons of personality and just an oppressive ass atmosphere made worse by how labyrinthine it is. I thought I would hate manual, resource-based save spots but it's growing on me as a design choice, really ratchets up the tension in spots.

      Anyway, classic game is classic, turns out. I look forward to getting RE7 when I'm done.

      P.S. I love the stupid opening door animations. It's effectively preparing you for a jump scare every time you open a door lol. Some pretty evil shit haha.

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        January 27, 2017 8:37 AM

        The REmake is not only my favorite RE game, it's in my list of favorite games, period. One thing I love about it in particular is how the mansion and surrounding grounds open up as you progress. You get to know its twists and turns as well as you know your own neighborhood, and all the routes give you option: you can avoid Path A that still has zombies shambling around, but if you take Path B you'll have to tangle with the dog you left alive, etc.

        Such a great game.

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          January 27, 2017 8:45 AM

          Yeah, every room, every hallway is just dripping with personality. At first, especially as a modern gamer, I was pretty bewildered at this stupidly arbitrary labyrinth I was presented with. But you gradually realize that it's gated very smartly, and you start internalizing sections of the map.

          It feels like actual progress toward a goal and is satisfying as hell because you're relying on your own mind and memory, not a quest log or your experience level or something.

          And the designers of course understand what's happening so then they start mixing shit up. Just as you're getting comfortable, new and more horrible shit starts populating in your familiar hallways.

          Above all else I just love the atmosphere. Probably the best realized "gothic trap-house (lol)" I've seen in all of fiction, maybe? Fuck a Castle of Otranto.

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          January 27, 2017 9:26 AM

          The interconnected mansion has a Dark Souls feel to it even. When you think of the game in the context of its time, it's even more incredible. One of those one-every-three generation games that really breaks new ground

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          January 27, 2017 10:29 AM

          Yep, I feel the same way.

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          January 27, 2017 10:49 AM

          The REmake was my first time playing the game as an adult (I had it on GameCube but was too young to fully appreciate it plus it scared the absolute shit out of me) and it was just fantastic.

          I am so unbelievably pumped for the remake of RE2.

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            January 27, 2017 10:49 AM

            Seriously, I had such a good time with it and I hate horror with a passion.

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          January 27, 2017 12:16 PM

          [deleted]

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        January 27, 2017 9:21 AM

        The door openings! I forgot about that!

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        January 27, 2017 9:24 AM

        Game is fucking amazing. Still freaky as fuck too

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        January 27, 2017 9:31 AM

        I really need to play more of that. The obtuse puzzles are stumping me

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        January 27, 2017 12:00 PM

        [deleted]

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        January 27, 2017 12:36 PM

        REmake is so brilliant. One of the best games of all time. I hope you are playing with the original tank controls. Nothing against direct analog controls but in the remastered version they really screwed up the balance because it takes away all animation and turning speed so you can easily just 360 no scope around enemies.

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      January 27, 2017 8:51 AM

      This is huge - Almost 10% are playing the game in VR:

      http://uploadvr.com/61000-people-playing-resident-evil-7-ps-vr/amp/

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      January 27, 2017 8:53 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 27, 2017 9:06 AM

      That's cool. I feel Capcom really needed this.

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      January 27, 2017 9:12 AM

      Not a lot of my steam friends own it, kind of surprising. Having a lot of fun with it, I just got the snake key.

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        January 27, 2017 9:45 AM

        I Redbox'd it for a couple of nights. Probably got about 4-5 hours in. Think I've had my fill. It's a quality game, but eh, I'm good.

    • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      January 27, 2017 9:23 AM

      2.2 million were spoiled about plot points by Shacknews.

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        January 27, 2017 9:43 AM

        Man, I wish! Probably only half that!

        • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          January 27, 2017 10:21 AM

          ;{

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            January 27, 2017 10:56 AM

            Our RE7 guides have done great traffic this week. That is due to the names of the articles, which are admittedly very spoilery. We need to do that for best SEO practices and have tried to keep them off of the chatty and social media channels.

            It isn't a perfect solution, but I don't regret the way we have gone about issuing guides on a very popular game.

            • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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              January 27, 2017 11:18 AM

              I know it's just me, but I'm going to stop reading the news if it's going to spoil a popular game that I want to play in the title.

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                January 27, 2017 11:21 AM

                Not just you. One of those titles is absurd.

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                January 27, 2017 11:43 AM

                100% not just you. I completely disagree with TMWTB's justification for it. Keep the fucking spoilers INSIDE the guide and out of the headlines.

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                  January 27, 2017 1:11 PM

                  Titles are one of the most important parts of an article's ranking power in Google's algorithm. It is one of the first things that the engine and the people looking things up see. If we go with bland titles that don't include keywords, we are setting out articles up to fail.

                  Yes, it sucks that we have to include spoilers in titles. It does. But, it is the nature of the business. This is how Google has set their search engine up, and if we want Shacknews to be around a year, two years, or even another twenty years... then we have to play by their rules.



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                    January 27, 2017 1:13 PM

                    Can you not have tags/keywords that aren't part of the headline but still get picked up by Google? This isn't rhetorical, I only have a vague understanding of Google rankings and that seems like it would be a good feature for them to support.

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                      January 27, 2017 1:18 PM

                      [deleted]

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                        January 27, 2017 1:20 PM

                        Yeah. It's a shame we can't make use of that. Would be really helpful in situations like this.

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                      January 27, 2017 1:19 PM

                      The title, descriptions, and first two paragraphs of an article are the most important pieces of the SEO puzzle.

                      We could ignore the title and description and only put keywords in the first two paragraphs, but then we hurt our chances of ranking well against much larger sites.

                      Google's SEO is a very complicated beast and we'll never truly understand how or why it works (I don't think the people who wrote the code even know).

                      So yes, we could theoretically not put keywords in the title. But, it would hurt the article more than anything, and would impact the amount of traffic that gets driven there. Most of these articles were written based on trending keywords and topics at the time.

                      I.E. the article about Ethan getting his hand cut off was something that people were Googling about and wanting to know more about, so we hit it.

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                        January 27, 2017 1:25 PM

                        That makes sense at least. It's disappointing that there's no safe way to handle it right now though. Will the site redesign incorporate spoiler tags in headlines an articles, similar to reddit? Then those could carry forward in the article chatty post. You get to keep the keywords for search ranking without spoiling things for everyone who reads the site.

                        Thankfully Lamp allows me to block all posts from the "Shacknews" user, so I'll take advantage of that for now. Unfortunately I'll also have to avoid visiting the front page until a better solution is in place. If you guys spoiled some major plot point for Persona 5 close to release that would probably be my last visit to Shacknews in any capacity, and I don't want that to happen.

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                          January 27, 2017 1:33 PM

                          Side note: super stoked for Persona 5....

                          Back on topic...

                          I'm not 100% sure what all the site revamp will include at the moment. That would be a question for the man with the briefcase. That being said, though... we try to keep all of our guide content (which contains spoilery spoilers) off the Chatty. Sometimes they slip through, though... which really sucks for you guys. Maybe we can find a better way around that option.

                          I also am not 100% sure how a spoiler tag would affect how Google reads the title of an article, and whether the effects would be negative or negligible. I'd love to have a way to have those SEO happy titles, but still be able to keep things safe from being spoiled. Hopefully one day that will be possible.

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                            January 27, 2017 1:46 PM

                            [deleted]

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                              January 27, 2017 1:48 PM

                              That's what I was afraid of, but didn't want to speak on it without having first-hand knowledge about it. Never had to deal with that particular issue.

                              Thanks for the information, though!

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                January 27, 2017 12:09 PM

                I got spoiled too and it sucks :(
                There has to be a way to have those articles without those super spoilery headlines, no?

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              January 27, 2017 11:19 AM

              [deleted]

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                January 27, 2017 1:45 PM

                There was a thread it got deleted once people started complaining about spoilers.

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                  January 27, 2017 1:49 PM

                  The thread was accidental. We have to manually hide articles from Chatty, and someone forgot to take care of that during formatting. :(

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              January 27, 2017 11:21 AM

              I just went back to look @ the articles and I agree with DM7.

              Spoiler!

              http://www.shacknews.com/article/98782/resident-evil-7-so-you-got-your-hand-cut-off

              You just ruined a HUGE moment in a game I've been looking forward to...for hits. You don't regret that? IMO, that title is completely unacceptable. :(

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                January 27, 2017 11:33 AM

                Lol yeah just because it gets you clicks doesn't make it not crappy?

                You couldn't make that into a clickbait ass headline without just saying the exact spoiler?

                "You won't believe this GRISLY moment from Resident Evil 7"

                "The SHOCKING moment of RE7 that everyone is talking about!"

                Also LOL at the disclaimer two paragraphs into the article:

                "There are massive story spoilers below. If you haven't made it past the scene where Ethan gets his hand cut off, you'll probably want to play at least that far before you read below."


                Uhh, a bit too late for that don't you think?

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                  January 27, 2017 11:45 AM

                  No one is searching for grisly or shocking moments, dude. These guides aren't clickbait, these are things gamers are searching for. Huge difference.

                  I understand where everyone is coming from but this site is being carried by our guides and SEO. I will look to help keep spoilers away from front page readers' eyeballs with the redesign of the site, but this is what we have right now.

                  I have no regrets doing this to give us the best chance at not going out of business.

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                    January 27, 2017 11:47 AM

                    Are you really suggesting one headline makes the difference between Shacknews going out of business or not? You really couldn't come up with a way to write that headline that isn't just a straight up blatant spoiler? Like, I dunno, saying "first boss" instead of the incredibly spoilery name of the boss?

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                    January 27, 2017 11:48 AM

                    But people are searching for "RESIDENT EVIL 7 HAND CUT OFF" in the first week of release? That doesn't make much sense to me.

                    Don't you think just "RESIDENT EVIL 7 GUIDE / WALKTHROUGH" would have the same effect, since you're just targeting people looking for a game guide and not going for "clickbait"?

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                    January 27, 2017 11:55 AM

                    TMWTB, stick to your guns on these catchy headlines. This is what brings interest in the subject to people who don't play games regularly. I've done a lot of copy writing in my day and I think you're on the right track for a fresh sounding tone for drawing in a wider audience beyond hardcore gamers. They're not going to think about spoilers. They're just going to think "woah, you can do that in a game?". This is a Good Thing™.

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                      January 27, 2017 12:01 PM

                      Word.

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                      January 27, 2017 12:17 PM

                      Isn't the conversational tone the draw, there? I don't think the spoiler-y content is necessary for it still to be an enticing headline.

                      "So, some really grim stuff happens to your character in RE7..."

                      Etc

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                        January 27, 2017 1:00 PM

                        Sorry. :(

                        I totally understand what you're saying, but the off-hand remark (I swear I'm not trying to make a pun, lol), with the casual spoiler, is how people talk and think nowadays in our media overloaded era. You know how after each Walking Dead or GoT episode how the Internet and social media is flooded with spoilery shit? It's changing the paradigm. Not saying it's a good thing, but it's the direction of snappy, colloquial banter today and what casual audiences are drawn to.

                        I've been sitting here for a while trying to think of a less spoilery but equally catchy heading. The only thing I've got is "I Played RE7 and I REALLY Need a Hand!", and that's more of an inside joke for people who are already playing, vs. an enticement to people who didn't know about the game previously.

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                        January 27, 2017 1:13 PM

                        It's the juxtaposition of the conversational tone and the very not conversational thing that happens.

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                    January 27, 2017 12:28 PM

                    Do what you've got to do to keep the lights on man. That's what's most important here!

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                      January 27, 2017 12:37 PM

                      I don't think it's a good idea to alienate long-time supporters (and normal people who dislike having huge spoilers shoved in their faces). There has to be a better way to attract new visitors.

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                        January 27, 2017 12:42 PM

                        No one has had any spoilers shoved in their faces. Get the fuck over it.

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                        January 27, 2017 12:44 PM

                        LOL, this is overreacting to the highest degree. Long-time supporter here, doesn't bother me.

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                          January 27, 2017 12:45 PM

                          Glad to hear you don't mind spoilers. Most people do.

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                            January 27, 2017 12:50 PM

                            When they keep the Chatty running? You're damn right I don't mind.

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                            January 27, 2017 12:55 PM

                            Most people aren't bothered by spoilers actually. They prefer them.

                            • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                              January 27, 2017 1:07 PM

                              The last thing I look for when playing a game is the ending or major plot points on websites.

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                              January 27, 2017 1:52 PM

                              This reminds me of my first college course...

                              Professor spoiled the latest episode of some big show I don't watch, and a girl whined about it. He looked her square in the face and told her "This is the real world now, and shit is going to get spoiled. So, you have two choices. You either get the fuck over it, or you get the fuck out of my classroom."

                              Obviously, not saying that's the tone I want to set... But that comment reminded me of that story.

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                              January 27, 2017 2:34 PM

                              I think you're talking about this research
                              https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/spoiler-alert-spoilers-make-you-enjoy-stories-more

                              which says that people tend to enjoy stories more if they've been spoiled. It does not say that people "prefer spoilers." Any casual conversation you're ever likely tohave about the subject will tell you the complete opposite.

                              As a person who doesn't care about spoilers in the least I can tell you my experience has been that most people will FUCKING MURDER YOU if you spoil something for them unsolicited.

                  • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                    January 27, 2017 1:06 PM

                    Next time just show the ending of the game in a video form, save us from playing the game entirely.

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                    January 27, 2017 2:36 PM

                    And you should not regret this amount of effort, analyses, and direction. Keep it up TMWTB!

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                  January 27, 2017 11:46 AM

                  I know what you're saying but honestly, the casually conversational Shack headline is so much catchier.

                  If I didn't know anything about the game and normally didn't play RE games, seeing that headline would make me very curious and want to play it.

                  Overall, I'm going to say the pros outweigh the cons for the general audience that should play more games and should come to Shacknews more!

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                January 27, 2017 12:02 PM

                I thought it was a joke or sarcasm of some sort. Thanks for ruining it for me.

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                January 27, 2017 2:40 PM

                Well that's shitty. Links in spoiler tags are visible in Shackbrowse. So now it's been spoiled for me too.

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              January 27, 2017 12:39 PM

              I have watched a few of your videos, very helpful!

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                January 27, 2017 12:41 PM

                Also ignore the idiots above whining about spoilers in the articles. If you're searching for Resident Evil 7 articles, don't complain about spoilers or set your search terms better.

                No one who has not played or watched RE7 would know about the hand thing unless they had already seen it in game and were searching to find out if they just fucked up or not.

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                  January 27, 2017 12:42 PM

                  The spoilers are in the HEADLINES. I stumbled right into one scrolling through the chatty. It wish right there in the article chatty post. I didn't search for jack shit.

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                    January 27, 2017 12:42 PM

                    *it was

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                    January 27, 2017 12:46 PM

                    Maybe Shacknews isn't for you any more. I dunno. Do you want him to go change the headlines to make you happy or do you think you can get over it?

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                      January 27, 2017 12:47 PM

                      What is this? You're ok with spoilers in article headlines? If I posted some huge spoiler in the chatty I would get fucking roasted for it.

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                        January 27, 2017 12:59 PM

                        To be fair, tmwtb is trying to keep the site alive.

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                      January 27, 2017 1:08 PM

                      [deleted]

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                    January 27, 2017 12:48 PM

                    Where is this chatty post? TMWTB said they're not posting those to the chatty.

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                      January 27, 2017 1:01 PM

                      I can't seem to open the actual chatty link in Lamp or on the website now for some reason, but viewing the article from the front page makes it clear that it was posted in the chatty at the time. I replied to it originally using Lamp.

                      Here are screenshots showing the article, headline, and chatty replies. SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY: http://imgur.com/a/kGO9h

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                        January 27, 2017 1:09 PM

                        So they made one vaguely spoilery post which from everything I can tell has since been nuked.
                        https://winchatty.com/nusearch?q=&a=Shacknews&pa=&c=
                        Not one single post from that account with a spoiler in the title is showing.

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                          January 27, 2017 1:11 PM

                          It's not vague at all if you are aware of the game's premise. And if it was nuked, is it now the Shacknews policy that spoilers will be avoided in article headlines? If that's true I have no problem whatsoever.

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                          January 27, 2017 1:11 PM

                          [deleted]

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                            January 27, 2017 1:13 PM

                            Even so, they shouldn't be posted to the chatty in the first place. And since I do read the front page, it would be nice not to trip over headline spoilers there either.

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                        January 27, 2017 1:22 PM

                        I haven't played it yet and have been avoiding reviews and articles. I don't know if it's any help for you, but this is how my brain has been working on this sort of thing lately. I got spoiled on some huge Walking Dead plot point years before they got around to it on the show and it felt like a kick in the stomach. After that, I figured I was going to have to change my thinking, because that feeling sucked and seemed so oddly out of proportion in the grand scheme of things.

                        Now, not only do I religiously cloister myself off from game news, movie trailers etc. I also have gotten into this mental slight of hand where if I see a spoiler, another part of my brain kicks in and says "oh I don't know what part of the game that is and I don't know who that character is" or maybe "maybe that thing doesn't happen every time", even though there's a part of me that knows these are lame counter thoughts. I just intentionally make myself a little dumb and pretend to be stupid and it cancels out the emotion and even cancels out remembering the spoiler for when I play the game later. If it doesn't, I'll just wait longer to play it so that I've forgotten the spoiler for real, at least enough to not be anticipating it every second.

                        There are just too many ways to find out plot twists in this world, so you kind of have to become a bit of an idiot-monk to deal with it. I'm ok with that. I call it keeping up with the times, lol, served with a healthy portion of black humor about it. It's an Ow, My Balls world and we just live in it. /friendly hug

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                    January 27, 2017 3:02 PM

                    Thats what you get for learning how to read QQ moar nub!

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      January 27, 2017 11:06 AM

      [deleted]

    • ArB legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      January 27, 2017 2:27 PM

      Nice! Remember when everyone laughed about Capcom's estimate of 4 million sales? I hope this means we'll finally get that MegaMan dating sim.

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