Personally I will say Classic gameplay isn't outdated. It's perfectly playable. But i'd argue it sure isn't a mass market friendly style. I saw Until Dawn posted above but that game also didn't ask for any sort of combat. So it evened out. In my eyes Capcom saw FPS as the mediator in modern but keeping something similar to that classic style. So unless they make a budgeted title (Which they should do) for those classic games. I just don't see it happening.
Just with how capcom is. I see them feeling that RE7 was what they made for the classic games and the success of REmake and RE0 lead into that as well as more greenlighting that people are interested in revisiting the older titles rather than the specific gameplay at hand.
In some ways I see RE7 as a sort of "careful what you wish for" style game. You got horror back and similar classic gameplay as well. But the price to pay was the first person view and it taking away from future projects potentially.
In all ways possible i see RE6 as a "careful what you wish for" style game. It's weird to mee seeing you diminishing not only RE7 but the FP format in every opportunity you can. I may sound a little bit aggressive and hot headed right now, but it's just hard to see everytime people trying to give the impression that Resident Evil 7 was a failure in every way possible. I see people saying like "give this perspective/format one last time" as it needs to be changed asap or Capcom will go down within the next hour.
Yes, RE6 sold better on it's first months. But it was also that huge letdown for the Company not because it didn't sold well comparing to older RE's at the time (except RE5), but because it was supposed to be a game changer inside the franchise and reach every fan possible, making even people that didn't know the franchise as well to make the jump. It had a "blend" of genres, three different campaigns unlocked from the start (with a bonus one as you finish them), epic setpieces on a giant scale and co-op with even four players at the same time in many moments of each path. And i'm not even talking about the extra modes offered inside the title. It was one of the biggest (if not the most) projects inside the entire lifetime of Capcom, and it should have been at least the most profitable from the Resident Evil franchise, but it wasn't.
The production value inside that game is just insane and i just can't see the actual Capcom we know now doing a title in the same scope so soon again, especially after the incredible amout of damage which the company got from the past years, incluiding from RE6 itself.
I'm not saying all of that because i want to see the action horror side of the series going away, but its so weird to see the jump of logics inside the RE fandom while talking of both Resident Evil 7 and RE6, comparing their sales blindly and filling the chest with authority just because they wanted to see more action titles/their type of title didn't do horribly, it's almost like many of you forgot how incredibly damaging this game was on it's first years out there. Many people who knows the franchise for a long time and have been working closer to gaming development (inside information is always better) tried to come out and say why it was actually not fair to treat Resident Evil 6 like a big success or even a more successful title than RE7.
If you go down a few pages ago Dusk Golem said exactly how they actually feel about RE7 and even in the past, cvxfreak, which is even writing a book about the creation/growth of the entire franchise through out the years, said some interesting things about why the development costs of Resident Evil 6 were higher than it's sequence. But using the context that Capcom haven't said anything about the game being a failure as shield, some people treated him horribly and he even deleted his comments about it.
People need to realize that from the beginning, RE7 wasn't trying to top the scope and target sales from Resident Evil 6 in any ways, they knew from the start that this change wouldn't please everyone and that's why they expect a even smaller amount of sales. That being said, the game had a respectful amount of sales compared to it's own expectations from Capcom.
RE6 originally was expected to sell initially 7M units (the highest number of sales inside the whole series at the time, even surpassing RE5 which was on 6M) but it managed to get 4.8M, while RE7 got 3.5M of 4M. The company even used the word failure to express the uneven results on it's own reports by 2013:
Look, i'm not trying to start a fight with you Jaw or even Cyberpunk. I know that the vast majority of fans inside the RE fandom loves action and actually started to grow on the franchise after RE4, and i'm even sure that Resident Evil 7 probably won't ever reach RE6's entire lifetime sales. I don't want to see neither action or survival horror Resident Evil's going away and i know that we'll see more third person/action horror games in the near future.
I'm just exausted of seeing many hardcore RE fans or the majority which loves action trying to discredit RE7 in any way possible. Which i don't even know why, because they're basically on the vast majority inside RE fans and they will see more of their favorite type of game soon. Resident Evil 7 didn't replace any other title in the same veins or took the production by force, it was a natural and organic decision because it wasn't coming together as well. They needed a change and a fresh new air for this new trilogy, and even the development team wasn't achieving results and getting into some creative blocks because they didn't know were to go after RE6. That's why they contacted Takeuchi and he took over the project with a new team.
It's sad to see many people bashing the title and creating a surreal image for Resident Evil 7. Last week i saw a podcast with long time, hardcore RE fans with David Vaughn and one of them mentioned the game as a huge failure, saying that most fans didn't liked it and Capcom was in danger of maybe never making another RE title again. And that's from someone that participates on a big channel/community around Resident Evil for a looong time. It's creating a smoke mirror in front of the game, making people believe that it was the downfall of the entire series (even when RE6 had the same problems before) and one of the most hated titles inside the franchise. Which is completely unfair for one of the most praised games of 2017 (by critics and fans, just see a thread with each one's favorite games of the year or even user reviews) and a successful entrie for Capcom considering it's scope and target/sales. And that's even greater considering all amazing titles inside this year.
Btw, here's a link for context behind each image i posted earlier:
Destructoid:
www.destructoid.com/resident-evil-6-is-officially-a-failure-243965.phtml
Rely on Horror:
www.relyonhorror.com/latest-news/resident-evil-news/resident-evil-6-and-dmc-failed-to-meet-capcoms-sales-expectations/
Capcom's offical report:
www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e130204b.html
And if you liked RE7 in any way, i've made the most unsuccessful thread possible (i even consider it a massive failure, Capcom can cut me out after that for sure) about the story/plot of the game. It's a very personal opinion and i sincerely hope it's not a waste of your time:
www.resetera.com/threads/resident-evil-7-and-daddy-issues-contain-spoilers.3732/