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Final Fantasy XV Director On What's Next, Post-Launch Support, MP, PC Mods, 6.5M sold

K

Koozek

Member
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-15-director-on-whats-next-and-hopes-/1100-6453381/


On post-launch reception and support:
GameSpot: This particular game had the longest development period of any entry in the Final Fantasy series. It initially started as a spin-off, but it eventually became a core entry in the series. What are your reactions to seeing how it's evolved into what it is now?

Hajime Tabata: From a business standpoint, we've achieved over 6.5 million units, and the fact that we're still going to be putting out content till the launch of the Windows Edition--and then we have the Pocket Edition--this project has been very successful for us. But from a personal level, and from a dev team standpoint, what really resonates with us is the fan feedback we got from the day one release. A lot of the major criticisms was that they felt the story was lacking in certain aspects. So for us, we did our best to give back and supplement those areas where people felt it was lacking.

When those fans who were complaining about the story from the early days are now completely satisfied with the overall experience, that's the moment when we can say as a team that we're pleased with what we did for Final Fantasy XV. And obviously, we don't plan to draw this out forever. At some point we're going to have to mark the end of the journey for Final Fantasy XV. With that said, we're still listening to what the fans want and expect for this game.
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On upcoming online multiplayer mode:
Was the desire to create more content in such a large space what led to the online mode? There are a lot of new features and support happening in FFXV, and an online component is a bit of an ambitious addition.

Hajime Tabata: We always had a plan for the multiplayer expansion. When we announced the DLC lineup, we started really thinking about how do we take on that project, and we needed a mission to have the players really feel like they're part of the overall story. It takes place during the 10 years that wasn't told in the main story. So we wanted people to really feel like they had a part in the story. Once we started thinking about the actual multiplayer, it became bigger than what we had initially anticipated.

Even before launch, we worked closely with the community and were open about our plans, addressing fan feedback. That's sort of what led up to the online service, where XV is a living, breathing world. Our approach was that we wanted to give back to our fan base, and we're seeing that support pay off. A month after the game had launched, about 30% of the people had beaten the game. Now, after several months, that's been continuously improving. We saw that rise to 60%. We're making the game more accessible to people and we're probably bringing in more fans. So as an overall kind of experience, we like this is a lot, but we still have a lot we learn from doing it this way.
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On PC mods and official tools:
One thing that PC gamers are really into is on the modification side of things. Many developers release tool-sets and design kits for their games on PC. While many people are anticipating mods to make the characters nude, there's likely going to much more than that with actual gameplay creations. What's your stance on PC mods, and are you OK with fans going at it with the game?

Hajime Tabata: Well, we'll definitely be allowing user-generated content for players. We know that that's a common thing. We'll provide a level editor so that players can create their own quests and their own mini missions. So that's at least one type of thing that we want to contribute and give to the players. But as far as the other stuff, we'll look at how the PC audience reacts to the Windows Edition with these and how many of them actually engaging with it. And depending on that, we might start thinking about what to contribute or what other tool sets to provide. We have plans for months, but we we want to see how this takes off first. Before we start thinking about okay, maybe if people seem to like this, so let's give them this tool set.
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More at the link.
---

I think I'm gonna add this here too, lol:

Disclaimer: Before anyone starts talking about Tabata doing the next FF again: his next game will be a new IP as Tabata just confirmed again (like many times before in the last months) in this Kotaku interview by Jason Schreier from the other day:
After that, he and his team will move on to a new IP, although we shouldn't expect to see that until the PlayStation 5 comes around. ”We're not really thinking of this project for the current generation," he said, speaking of his next game. ”We're looking more toward the future. So there might be a little more time before anything comes out."
Click to expand...

Clarification from Jason Schreier himself:
jschreier said:
He told me he is working on a new IP. I didn't directly quote him because "It's a new IP" is better paraphrased.
Click to expand...
 
D

DiipuSurotu

Banned
The person answering the interviews and doing PR is actually a robot. The real Tabata is locked up in a secret facility at SE and hard at work on his new project, A New IP (working title).
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
Once we get a release date on the pc version I just have to build a pc like I can't not play this game with mods made by ppl.

In the meantime waiting on that multiplayer full release guess a release date for that and episode ignis will come next week
 
Z

Zedark

Member
6.5 million, that's awesome! That means they are now on par with the XIII sales number, right? Wasn't that 6.6 million?
 
K

Kenai

Member
I don't think it will be as amazing as modded Skyrim, but modded Skyrim showed me how a fun but flawed game can turn into something truly timeless with the right user-generated tweaks. I'm pretty excited.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
An ultimate edition and the pc release would maybe put them where next year like 8?
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I don't think they'll sell a million on PC that easily next year. Will probably take a few sales and 1-2 years, but maybe I'm underestimating the possible potential especially if the modding support is good.
 
T

THE GUY

Banned
I'm guessing this will be the most successful single player entry in the franchise by the time it's done selling. Solid game overall, but I think they should move away from the open world structure.

There's a great game waiting to be made where you just use larger zones instead of a connected world. That allows you to add variety and keep a better focus on the pacing and progression of the story. And something along those lines could be great in the end.

Although, I know there's no chance of that judging by his words, and since open world sells.
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
Koozek said:
I don't think they'll sell a million on PC that easily next year. Will probably take a few sales and 1-2 years, but maybe I'm underestimating the possible potential especially if the modding support is good.
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I'm not a sales person lol i probably vastly overestimated what pc versions do lol
 
Z

Zedark

Member
TheGreatDirector said:
Are you talking about lifetime or sales by this amount of time from release?
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Lifetime, for the XIII version only. I found on wikipedia that as of January 2013 it was at 6.6 million, so XIII is probably 7.5-8 million ltd, especially with the 700k from the steam release. So not quite, but well on its way.
 
S

Stygr

Banned
6.5 million, uh, lower than Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 but higher than Inquisition in the "AAA RPG Open World comparison", it's good i think.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Zedark said:
6.5 million, that's awesome! That means they are now on par with the XIII sales number, right? Wasn't that 6.6 million?
Click to expand...
~6.9M as of 2014, so over 4 years after launch, and then 800K on Steam since 2014 (starting at $13, which is obviously much lower than what FFXV will launch at on PC).
 
Z

Zedark

Member
entremet said:
What was their target? 10 million?
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There was a lower bound of 5 million below which the series would have ended on consoles, at least that's what Tabata said. That is the only firm internal expectation we have. It also was below 10 million, also from Tabata himself.

Edit: this is not quite correct, here's the actual source:
Dualshockers said:
Shortly after Tabata-san was named Director of the game, he talked with the head of sales at Square Enix, and learned that sales forecasts for the game were quite low, under five millions worldwide.

That's why Tabata-san set a sales goal a million units higher than the forecast, at six millions. He thought that setting a high goal would bring the team together, forcing them to push through whatever obstacle was placed in their way.
Click to expand...
 
K

Koozek

Member
entremet said:
What was their target? 10 million?
Click to expand...
The 10 milion thing was just a personal goal, not the break-even-point:
Speaking with European press following Uncovered, Tabata said the game needs to sell upwards of 10 million units over its lifetime. This has nothing to do with profitability, however.

In a statement issued to Famitsu, Tabata clarified the 10 million figure is nothing more than a goal for the team. He said the number is probably exaggerated but was put out to demonstrate the team's lofty ambitions. ”We've thought about what we need to do to achieve this number and tasked ourselves with this huge objective."​


They broke even with FFXV on launch already:
Tabata-san clarified that not only Final Fantasy XV already has already broken even with its development costs, but it did so on day one, which means when it launched on November 29th.

Square Enix announced almost immediately that the day one shipments, including digital downloads, were over five million copies, marking the fastest selling Final Fantasy game ever at its debut. This means that those five million copies were enough to recoup costs, even if we don't know by how much.​
 
T

Trago

Member
6.5 mil is excellent. Their post release content has been eh. They need to take pointers from The Witcher 3.
 
F

Fiendcode

Member
Koozek said:
They broke even with FFXV on launch already:
Tabata-san clarified that not only Final Fantasy XV already has already broken even with its development costs, but it did so on day one, which means when it launched on November 29th.

Square Enix announced almost immediately that the day one shipments, including digital downloads, were over five million copies, marking the fastest selling Final Fantasy game ever at its debut. This means that those five million copies were enough to recoup costs, even if we don’t know by how much.​
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Broke even on production cost (ie: development) but not overall budget which includes advertising and promotion. We don't know if FFXV broke even overall but I wouldn't be surprised if it has.
 
I

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
When those fans who were complaining about the story from the early days are now completely satisfied with the overall experience, that's the moment when we can say as a team that we're pleased with what we did for Final Fantasy XV.
Click to expand...

this will never happen, because your execution of the story itself was flawed. the actual underpinnings can't be fixed and make people completely satisfied with simple patch work, especially when they wont even be included into the main story, so they will always be supplemental material similar to the movie
 
S

Socivol

Member
Literally just beat the game again 10 minutes ago and man if they would've fixed that story it would've been epic. Ardyn was such a great villain. I am really hoping the use the multiplayer expansion to expand on story elements from the main game.
 
T

theofficefan99

Junior Member
I'm glad it sold well, but yeahhhhhh I never want another FF to be anything like XV again. ARPG combat is fine. Open World, thin and horrible plot, bad presentation, shitty camera, etc. etc.? No.

Also, what have they even done to improve the story? Chapter 13 Verse 2 didn't do anything, and honestly neither did the Episodes. The story is beyond saving. Maybe Episode Ignis will be interesting but I have my doubts, and I don't expect anything decent from Comrades.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Stygr said:
6.5 million, uh, lower than Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 but higher than Inquisition in the "AAA RPG Open World comparison", it's good i think.
Click to expand...
BkzUzi said:
It also launched on less platforms
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Exactly. Wait until the PC release and several sales over 2 years like FO4 and TW3 before you compare.
Fiendcode said:
Broke even on production cost (ie: development) but not overall budget which includes advertising and promotion. We don't know if FFXV broke even overall but I wouldn't be surprised if it has.
Click to expand...
Who says he didn't mean total costs?
 
Y

yrba1

Member
Will likely buy again in hopes that massive support will warrant more Japanese devs to give access to modding tools for their player base.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Inuhanyou said:
this will never happen, because your execution of the story itself was flawed. the actual underpinnings can't be fixed and make people completely satisfied with simple patch work, especially when they wont even be included into the main story, so they will always be supplemental material similar to the movie
Click to expand...
You know, I don't understand if they're still working on free story patches or not? I can't tell from the recent interviews if they plan on doing that through free updates to the main story, or only through DLC like Episode Ignis, which is said to be meatiest so far, the multiplayer one, which seems to have quite a bit of story content too, or the Luna and Ardyn DLC they're teasing heavily, e.g. just recently in the Kotaku interview:
Episodes Gladiolus and Prompto came out earlier this year, with Episode Ignis to follow in December. Tabata hinted that there are more downloadable episodes to come soon—likely based on characters like Ardyn and Luna—and although he said he has an endpoint in mind for Final Fantasy XV, he wouldn’t say when.
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Watch Episode Ardyn be something like a $40 standalone game like Uncharted: TLL. From the gamescom fan event Q&A:
Q: A while ago a survey asked about which kind of content we as fans would like to see in the future - so, who won the race?

A: It was Ardyn's backstory that the majority voted for - so we clearly got the message he's the person fans want to know more about. We're not sure as of yet how we'll do it though - it's a lot of story, and telling a character's story is always the most difficult and detailed part of a game. So, we don't know yet whether we'll make it another game, no DLC though, it would be a full game, or a movie, comic etc. We really want to tell his story though. Second in the survey was Luna's story by the way.
Click to expand...
 
W

Wagram

Member
When those fans who were complaining about the story from the early days are now completely satisfied with the overall experience, that's the moment when we can say as a team that we're pleased with what we did for Final Fantasy XV.

It'll never happen.
 
G

gundamkyoukai

Member
6.5 million is good sales and the most likely made more money upfront thanks to DD\ season pass etc etc
Even when the game had a early price drop .
Then they still have the PC version .
Happy things work out since i want FF to stand on consoles \PC.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Wagram said:
When those fans who were complaining about the story from the early days are now completely satisfied with the overall experience, that's the moment when we can say as a team that we're pleased with what we did for Final Fantasy XV.

It'll never happen.
Click to expand...
Isn't that good for you guys? That way they'll keep working on FFXV forever and won't make another FF ever again!
 
N

napata

Member
Koozek said:
Exactly. Wait until the PC release and several sales over 2 years like FO4 and TW3 before you compare.

Who says he didn't mean total costs?
Click to expand...

We don't even have recent numbers for W3 & FO4. FO4 sold 12 million in a day, that's all we know. A comparison with FO4 is stupid considering it sold more in a day than FXV will sell ltd.
 
A

Aters

Member
Koozek said:
Isn't that good for you guys? That way they'll keep working on FFXV forever and won't make another FF ever again!
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind if they don't make another FF ever again. I wouldn't mind if there isn't another FF ever again. SE just don't have the vision. They keep listening to fan feedback because they don't have a clue of their own. You need visionary like Sakaguchi to just step up and tell everyone else what the next FF should look like because the franchise does not have a strong identity to itself in the first place.
 
UberTag

UberTag

Member
Delaney said:
I feel like I've been reading the same Tabata interview for three months now lol
Click to expand...
I suspect we'll be reading it every 3 months for the next 18.
And then after those 18 it'll be... "surprise, my new game isn't a new IP after all, it's actually Final Fantasy ??".
Because, frankly, Square Enix doesn't trot out this media junket for any of their other franchises.
 
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