Resident Evil 4 was less a game where you peeked carefully around every corner and preserved ammo than it was an experience where you shot anything and everything that moved (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Then Resident Evil 5 came along and took things further in that direction. Well, Capcom’s flagship franchise might not be heading back anytime soon, Masachika Kawata told Gamasutra.

As always, Americans are to blame. It seems the folks at Capcom don’t think Western audiences will go for titles where the emphasis lies less on suspense than it does blowing things up. ”Looking at the marketing data [for survival horror games] … the market is small compared to the number of units Call of Duty and all those action games sell,” Kawata said. “A ‘survival horror’ Resident Evil doesn’t seem like it’d be able to sell those kind of numbers.”

Hear that, Resident Evil fans? He just compared the classic horror franchise to Call of Duty. But although the main series is heading in a more action-centric direction, Kawata admits that there’s hope for spinoffs. Heck, if you’ve played Resident Evil: Revelations, you can see bits and pieces of the DNA from the first three games in the series in there. It’s still got that sense of suspense that’s been missing from other games in the series. And Operation Raccoon City is another departure of sorts for the series, focusing on squad tactics more than anything.

“So I think that by extending the market in this sense, we can still have the numbered titles keep their identity about what Resident Evil is supposed to be, but still expand and hit other markets as well,” Kawata said.