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Sales Data Famitsu Sales: Week 9, 2024 (Feb. 25 - Mar. 3)

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Party Sklar said:
Rebirth is a great game, and would certainly have deserved more sales than FF XVI imo. But Japan is a weird market nowadays, and I'm sure it'll be more successful everywhere else.


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So far from what we have in Europe it’s below part 1 as well

How long did it take for square to make a statement on part 1 and xvi sales btw?
 
One thing to note: the moment switch 2 releases, there WILL be a implosion in the second hand market and for pricing reasons, many people might buy used, not contributing to the hardware sales numbers.

But I live in a completely different socio-economic context here, I don't know how much the Japanese are into buying second-hand current-gen consoles.
All I know is that there are plenty of retro stores there, which imo is kinda an indication that there's a huge market for second hand.
 
Party Sklar said:
But Japan is a weird market nowadays, and I'm sure it'll be more successful everywhere else.
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Is it though?

I feel it follows the same "rules" as other markets. As in "refuse to follow market realities, end up with disappointing results".

One thing SQEX seemingly has not gotten yet is that you shouldn't develop games for either these regions or this region. You should develop for all regions and plan out accordingly.

Though not maybe additional success in Japan, but for example having a PC version day and date with the PS version would've made them enough returns to compensate for lower sales due to reasons in Japan.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
FF7R2 is extremely fun focused and silly and is terrified of showing violence and sadness (to the point of ruining many iconic moments), do you follow these games at all.

These games are massively less dark than FF7 1997.
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Final Fantasy VII is only dark in the mind of the people who played it when they were 12 and never touched it again, it's also a very fun focused and silly game. The original FF7 is a game in which a dog wears a human uniform à la Scooby-Doo, you can talk to a dolphin, do snowboard, do a squat contest, and ends with the main character saying "let's mosey".
 
There's probably a whole generation of kids/teens who have never played a Final Fantasy game because it hasn't been on Switch.
I would guess that it's mostly people in their late 20s who are buying FF in Japan.

New fans(kids/teens) are extremely important to any franchise because fans will eventually age out.
 
Party Sklar said:
Final Fantasy VII is only dark in the mind of the people who played it when they were 12 and never touched it again, it's also a very fun focused and silly game. The original FF7 is a game in which a dog wears a human uniform à la Scooby-Doo, you can talk to a dolphin, do snowboard, do a squat contest, and ends with the main character saying "let's mosey".
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They actually kill people in the original game.

These games do not.

They even remove the shot of Aerith being stabbed from the new games, the series is terrified of violence now
 
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i know people like to say ok western sales make up for declining sales etc etc whatever, but what happens when the kids who grow up with zero exposure or love for these franchises want to get into the industry and make games? where's the next generation of final fantasy developers coming from?
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
They actually kill people in the original game.

These games do not.
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  1. maybe use a spoiler tag to avoid being rude to people who haven't finished a game released six days ago
  2. you have not played the entire trilogy so how do you know how it'll end
  3. Remake dealt greatly with death, including a way greater emphasis on the death of civilians due to Avalanche's actions, and also a more emotional sendoff to characters that were killed offscreen in the original
  4. Remake also transformed a silly scene from the original (Cloud crossdressing) to a scene that was serious, emotional and impactful
 
mazi said:
i know people like to say ok western sales make up for declining sales etc etc whatever, but what happens when the kids who grow up with zero exposure or love for these franchises want to get into the industry and make games? where's the next generation of final fantasy developers coming from?
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Final Fantasy 20 by Larian - now with extra sexy Owlbears.
 
hard to say this whole thing is surprising, other than the surprisingly good uptick in switch sales. that’s just funny!
 
mazi said:
i know people like to say ok western sales make up for declining sales etc etc whatever, but what happens when the kids who grow up with zero exposure or love for these franchises want to get into the industry and make games? where's the next generation of final fantasy developers coming from?
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Party Sklar said:
  1. maybe use a spoiler tag to avoid being rude to people who haven't finished a game released six days ago
  2. you have not played the entire trilogy so how do you know how it'll end
  3. Remake dealt greatly with death, including a way greater emphasis on the death of civilians due to Avalanche's actions, and also a more emotional sendoff to characters that were killed offscreen in the original
  4. Remake also transformed a silly scene from the original (Cloud crossdressing) to a scene that was serious, emotional and impactful
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1. They kill no one in the first game even though three people are supposed to die
2. Yeah, sure
3. They super sanitized this to make Shinra responsible which is a large part of the problem.

Outside of the new God of War games, there may not be a franchise more frightened of ambiguity or darkness. It's been really disappointing.
 
Xenoblade 3 said:
There's probably a whole generation of kids/teens who have never played a Final Fantasy game because it hasn't been on Switch.
I would guess that it's mostly people in their late 20s who are buying FF in Japan.

New fans(kids/teens) are extremely important to any franchise because fans will eventually age out.
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I mean DQ XI got a special edition on 3DS, FF7 remake / rebirth could have had a special edition for the Switch.
I am totally aware of the FF XV pocket hd edition situation but SE could really get help from such efforts.
 
BassForever said:
Switch outselling ps5 the week a new FF is out

FF7R selling less week one then last years FF16

Big oof
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beej said:
and remake sold over 700k
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“You’re only as good as your last game” - Ken Williams

HockeyBird said:
Rebirth was always going to be a harder sell than Remake. It's a direct sequel to a story heavy game that takes at least 30 hours to complete. People aren't going to want to jump into the middle of the story, even if the sequel is better in a lot of ways. Getting into Rebirth properly is expensive and time consuming if you haven't already played Remake.
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I look forward to Cloud Returns: Final Fantasy VII to close out the trilogy
 
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Lugia667 said:
I do wonder if the bait and switch at the end of part 1 left a bad taste in some mouths that hurt this one
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Yeah, the ending is just legendarily bad in part 1.

Part 2’s ending is so much worse though and might have finally surpassed ME3 though!
 
isn't the big problem with FF in Japan right now is the recent generations view it as "that series for the older generation" and failing to grab the younger audience, making a trilogy based on a nearly 30 year old game probably isn't helping with that perception
 
SpaceGodzilla said:
isn't the big problem with FF in Japan right now is the recent generations view it as "that series for the older generation" and failing to grab the younger audience, making a trilogy based on a nearly 30 year old game probably isn't helping with that perception
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Don't think that this is a big reason. Look at DQ, it's almost funny how "slow" and little the series changed at it's core and it's somewhat more consistent in it's sales performance even today.
 
Party Sklar said:
But Japan is a weird market nowadays, and I'm sure it'll be more successful everywhere else.
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I'm not japanese and FF has been consistently unappealing to me as someone who was a huge fan when I was a teenager. I might be biased, but I can perfectly understand why the japanese audience isn't interested as I'm getting the same vibe.
 
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From the ones I've played, DQ has had way more "mature" stories than FF in my opinion, and that's what's worrying about Horii's statement about 12. Typically when developers say it's going to be more "mature", they're mostly talking about the overall setting and presentation - for example I've seen stuff like photorealistic visuals, or more "cinematic" directing and presentation, or even just having action oriented combat be considered elements that make a game more adult-oriented/mature in many articles and interviews (primarily japanese).

So yes, by these metrics FF7Rebirth and most FFs since original 7 would be considered "mature" games just how Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear are considered mature despite being extremely silly and goofy (although for those it might be the age rating) or how Yakuza/LaD is apparently too mature for Switch (or whatever their reasoning was) despite how absurd most of those games are.
 
FF7R2 not pushing PS5 sales is uh... telling?

The console just is a hard sell for people. It's been out for a while, Sony is almost outright saying they're writing it off and moving to the PS6 and people already expect these games to come out on PC because a. Sony started the whole trend and b. It's Square Enix, if they can squeeze more money out of something they absolutely will.

That combined with the general difficulty of selling sequels that are so deeply tied up in the plot of the first and I'm not surprised that this isn't moving consoles. FF7 is good, but FF7R got a lot of its sales from the being first and the massive tease reviewers gave it by noting all the changes from the original.

FF7R2 meanwhile already has expectations to live up to; FF7R gave people the main tone of the remake, which is "it's FF7 with Nomuraisms" (used here broadly for all the times Square Remix gets up its own ass about destiny and shit); its also adapting some of the tonally weaker parts of the original and the changes this time around seemed to annoy reviewers more than anything. Add to that the general trend of sequels always doing worse than predecessors (especially the story heavy ones) and it's not too surprising that this game isn't moving consoles.

Speaking off, I should finish the first part of the Remake before it hits PC. The gameplay of that one is quite fun.
 
From a busines standpoint, the results were always going to be underwhelming. It’s a sequel locked to a specific console on a market that disproportionately prefers handhelds over stationary consoles.

The writing was on the wall. What Square decides to do with that writing, is up to them.

If anything, the series could benefit from smaller scale projects that can be released in several platforms, Sony be damned.

At some point, the SE Board is gonna have a philosophical conversation about how much more they can depend on Sony, and if it’s profitable in the long run. Unless the plan is to, eventually, surrender to a buyout
 
AngryAlchemist said:
Omg Monster Hunter GET OUT OF THERE! RELEASE ON SWITCH 2 DAY ONE!
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I doubt Sony could pay Capcom enough money now that MonHun went big.

That doesn't meant that there will be a Switch 2 version (but i hope there is), but it definitely will be fully multiplatform, even in Japan unlike World.
 
Holy cow at FF7 Rebirth. The game reviewed very highly and it's a fantastic game, but these sales? They must've signed a hell of a deal with Sony considering all the bootlicking they've been doing in interviews this week regarding PlayStation and exclusivity.
 
Square-Enix tripling down on PS exclusivity and killing the Final Fantasy brand in the process while even Sony themselves are scrambling to get out of console exclusivity:

 
Party Sklar said:
Rebirth is a great game, and would certainly have deserved more sales than FF XVI imo. But Japan is a weird market nowadays, and I'm sure it'll be more successful everywhere else.


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I don't think it's going to be that huge outside of Japan either. We'll see I guess but Square-Enix not making any kind of press release on the first week of sales (maybe they will still) is kind of telling.
 
For me, I didn't buy Rebirth on PS5 (bought Unicorn Overlord instead) because I could wait until it released on Steam. FOMO didn't affect me because while FFVII isn't a direct remake of the game, it follows the same beats and the only thing worth wondering about is

Is whether or not Aerith will die or will be saved. And quite frankly I don't care that much to find out right away. Besides, I haven't played it yet but given how wishy-washy Rebirth is with its "changes", I bet they're gonna make it ambiguous and confusing so it will be up to interpretation.

There just wasn't any need to buy it right away on PS5. And that's kind of the problem of making late PC releases. Unless you have FOMO or your computer has worse specs than the current generation, there's really no need to buy PS5 games right away.
 
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SE selling FF to Japan while tying itself inextricably to Sony is like swimming with concrete shoes. Pikmin, of all things, is now more relevant to Japanese culture than Final Fantasy. I really can't see them making more exclusivity deals after this.
 
Bonejack said:
Don't think that this is a big reason. Look at DQ, it's almost funny how "slow" and little the series changed at it's core and it's somewhat more consistent in it's sales performance even today.
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DQ has remained relatively consistent in terms of identity and mechanics. Last time they tried to do something new mechanically was IX and it did not go over well at all with the JP audience which forced a major backpedal that’s fairly well documented even in the West. XII I think might be trying something new again but we’ll see how well that goes over.

FF on the other hand has been stuck in an identity crisis ever since the end of the PS1 era when they dropped ATB and formally moved to multiple teams handling alternating releases similar to CoD. Each game is mechanically different and even with the move towards Action RPG there’s been plenty of differences between them. It’s just a mess in a way that wasn’t as pronounced as the SNES/PS1 era where you at least were guaranteed that the combat system was relatively consistent even if everything else around it was different.
 
The choice of making ff7 remake is really starting to bite them in the ass now, I can't wait for the marketing cycle of ff7re3 to start and see square explaining that you really don't need play the previous 2 games to enjoy the third one. I really don't know if they can have another decline for final fantasy.
 
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