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NPD - FFXV experienced the best console launch month in franchise history

I think this goes back to something I've been saying for years. People on here kept saying that the FF brand had declined heavily in popularity, and were erroneously using games like FF Type 0-HD, FFXIII-2, Lightning Returns and a bunch of other spin offs to back up the argument. It never made sense. How can anyone judge the health of Final Fantasy based on how well the spin offs are selling? They don't paint a full picture.

FFXV selling as well as it has kind of shows that the franchise has declined in popularity in Japan, but that's about it. And even then, FFXV put up a good fight there, but was negatively affected by the decline of home consoles.

Well, I guess it's GAF for you !
 

duckroll

Member
With PC yeah. Even then, the 700k debut makes it seem less impressive. Like I said, FFXV with this kind of debut I reckon will make a lot more revenue.

So when's FFXV PC coming? End of 2017? Early 2018? Probably not before they're through the current season pass for consoles right? I reckon it'll be a GOTY Edition relaunch of sorts on all platforms.
 

Zedark

Member
SE announced 5 million shipped + Digital at launch, and 6 million shipped + digital a couple of weeks ago.

Unless retailers ordered another million copies because they like the look of unsold FFXV cases flooding their stores, the thing is likely very close or past 6 million by now.

I would rather say that FFXV is probably somewhere past 5 million now, otherwise they would have sold out again, and if that were the case, we would have seen yet another shipment to stores already. Probably somewhere between 5-5.5 million is my guess, which is a good number of sales to be sure.

I think this goes back to something I've been saying for years. People on here kept saying that the FF brand had declined heavily in popularity, and were erroneously using games like FF Type 0-HD, FFXIII-2, Lightning Returns and a bunch of other spin offs to back up the argument. It never made sense. How can anyone judge the health of Final Fantasy based on how well the spin offs are selling? They don't paint a full picture.

FFXV selling as well as it has kind of shows that the franchise has declined in popularity in Japan, but that's about it. And even then, FFXV put up a good fight there, but was negatively affected by the decline of home consoles.
This part seems strange, as we know that PS4 has just about the same (even a little bit more) as PS3, and software sales for PS4 were (I believe) higher than for PS3 when the years are aligned. There is definitely a shift in the interest of the consumer (seeing as many bigger franchises there seem to have difficulty, for example Yakuza 6, while others do attain growth, for example Persona 5). However you phrase it, I believe we are seeing a change of interest away from FF rather than a general diminishing of software and hardware sales (on Playstation consoles from last gen to this gen, that is).

I found this article to back up my numbers. It is half a year old, but it gives a good idea of the current situation as well:
Dualshockers said:
Last week the PS4 passed the three million units sold in Japan, and the statistics firm Media Create released its analysis today, comparing the local performance of Sony's latest console with the PS3.

PS4 sold more than three million units in 125 weeks since its release. PS3 achieved three million units sold in 127 weeks (in the second week of April 2009). The popularization rate of the PS4 has reached a pace roughly on the same level as the PS3.

It should be noted that, when comparing software sales of both models by the weeks in which they reached three million units, PS4 is at 11.36 million games sold, while PS3 was at 11.35 million. They're almost on the same scale on this as well.

Considering elements like the expansion of digital download sales and the shrinking of the market, it's estimated that PS4 has a slightly better momentum.
 
Good question! Cool that you remember that.

Not so much this time. FFXV did some work that helped the comp. Only catch is that all the titles in the top 3 last year were in month 2 or more of distribution. Needed FFXV month 1 to make up ground. Picture for total market is probably a little less positive than it appears thanks to the release timing of FFXV if you know what I mean?



Scorpio

Can't believe I forgot to do this the first time.

new-trying-not-to-laugh-gif.gif
 

Condom

Member
For many this is the first FF game ever, pretty impressive for SE to introduce new players to a JRPG franchise in 2017
 
FFXV also launch in a period where video game sales are far higher than May for The Witcher 3 and Maech for FFXIII.
Geee, I wonder why so many games bombed this Holiday.

I see. I guess S-E was right to fire Matsuno and window seat Ito after all then. Worthless employees who can't even sell a remaster to a modern obvious. Too bad.
Unfortunately as snarky as you are trying to be here, you are not entirely wrong. Matsuno has yet to create something with mass market appeal but he is critical darling no doubt.

Ito hasn't struck gold yet either. His directed FFs have ended up selling the lowest in the series (XII, IX).

Harsh but true.
 
Geee, I wonder why so many games bombed this Holiday.


Unfortunately as snarky as you are trying to be here, you are not entirely wrong. Matsuno has yet to create something with mass market appeal but he is critical darling no doubt.

Ito hasn't struck gold yet either. His directed FFs have ended up selling the lowest in the series (XII, IX).

Harsh but true.


Games bombing during Holiday doesn't contradict the fact that Holiday is the period with the highest sale volume. Do you deny that ?
 

Shahed

Member
I'm in two minds about this. On one hand I'm glad AAA JRPG's look like they can still do really well. It's my favourite genre and I want them to flourish in consoles as much as possible.

Yet watching my brother and sister play, it looks so boring. The fights look unengaging and a mess, and all they seem to be doing is side quest after side quest catching fish, finding frogs, dog tags and other random mundane things. Admittedly I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but it doesn't look like there's anything mof substance about the the majority of stuff you do.
 
Games bombing during Holiday doesn't contradict the fact that Holiday is the period with the highest sale volume. Do you deny that ?
Sure, a lot of software is moved during this period. But for a supposedly dead franchise dragged to mud with Lightning trilogy, no one was expecting such numbers.

Dishonored 2 and Titanfall 2 also saw a release in November and both failed to reach the sales of their predecessors meanwhile FFXV surpassed the sales record set by the previous SP mainline game.

Saying that FFXV sold so well thanks to Holiday is selling it short. The game also had good word of mouth to carry it through the whole Nov-Dec period.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
Final Fantasy was never really a dead franchise though. People just don't care for sequels or spinoffs much and despite its reputation here XIII still sold a lot.
 

Busaiku

Member
Putting things into perspective:

FFXV - 1.5 million retail + 300k+ digital = 1.8-2 million
FF13 - 1.3 million
FF12 - 900k
Witcher 3 - 700k

Biggest RPG after Bethesda stuff. Looking at 8-10 million LTD and one of the most, if not the most successful FF's ever (DLC, season pass, digital).

Obligatory chuckle at all those people who thought the game wouldn't even reach FF13's sales. Basically:

latest


Noctis stays treasured.
Pokémon Sun and Moon debuted at 2.7 million without digital.
Heck, its second month sales might even beat Final Fantasy XV's debut (it was at 1.51 million).
 
Final Fantasy was never really a dead franchise though. People just don't care for sequels or spinoffs much and despite its reputation here XIII still sold a lot.
XIII was overshipped though while FFXV is easily selling out its shipment.

While XIII had a great start, it ended with terrible WOM and weaker legs.

It felt like FFXV hit $40 almost immediately so I wonder if that helped. Lets hope Kingdom Hearts 2.8 makes a similar move :)
Despite the lower price promo during holidays, it still generated 54 percent more revenue than XIII.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
XIII was overshipped though while FFXV is easily selling out its shipment.

While XIII had a great start, it ended with terrible WOM and weaker legs.


Despite the lower price promo during holidays, it still generated 54 percent more revenue than XIII.
XIII didn't have a digital release and even when it finally did on PC it still managed to move another half million. We don't know how legs will be for XV yet aside from Europe where it's already dropped off some.
 
XIII didn't have a digital release and even when it finally did on PC it still managed to move another half million. We don't know how legs will be for XV yet aside from Europe where it's already dropped off some.
But with no digital release, almost 100 percent of XIII sales were retail and yet it still sold lower than XV.

Counting digital, XV has sold between 1.8 to 2 million which is mighty impressive.

FFXIII on PC sold so well because it was also the first proper current generation 3D FF on PC at that time. It is also sold for cheap so that helped.
 

Arkeband

Banned
If FFXVI is made with as little care as FFXV was because the sales numbers justify the clusterfuck, I truly weep for this series.

I enjoyed my time with FFXV but to pretend it's coherent and cohesive is a fucking farce. The game is a beautiful, sloppy mess.
 
If FFXVI is made with as little care as FFXV was because the sales numbers justify the clusterfuck, I truly weep for this series.

I enjoyed my time with FFXV but to pretend it's coherent and cohesive is a fucking farce. The game is a beautiful, sloppy mess.
Unless XVI has 10 years of story rewritings, you are safe.
 

Interfectum

Member
If FFXVI is made with as little care as FFXV was because the sales numbers justify the clusterfuck, I truly weep for this series.

I enjoyed my time with FFXV but to pretend it's coherent and cohesive is a fucking farce. The game is a beautiful, sloppy mess.

Considering FF15's flaws were made loud and clear to the dev team, so much so they need to go back and clean up some shit I'm guessing the team who is making FF16 is going to take note.
 

iMerc

Member
i really enjoyed this game.
well deserved.

on a side note, Ignis's meals look fucking delicious and i'm trying desperately to mimic them in the real world; with mixed results.
 
Ff7R will probably even be better. They have clear base already with the old game,one vision,no director changes,team changes hopefully,the man power(CC2), and hopefully not a set date they absolutely have to hit.

Plus I'm not sure how they're breaking down the episodes yet but that should help it get done a little quicker I would think.
 
But with no digital release, almost 100 percent of XIII sales were retail and yet it still sold lower than XV.

Counting digital, XV has sold between 1.8 to 2 million which is mighty impressive.

FFXIII on PC sold so well because it was also the first proper current generation 3D FF on PC at that time. It is also sold for cheap so that helped.



I'd argue FFXIII sold well despite being FFXIII. FFXHD or even FFIX managed to move more units in the same timeframe, at a far higher price point. That's because they don't have the FFXIII stigma.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
But with no digital release, almost 100 percent of XIII sales were retail and yet it still sold lower than XV.

Counting digital, XV has sold between 1.8 to 2 million which is mighty impressive.

FFXIII on PC sold so well because it was also the first proper current generation 3D FF on PC at that time. It is also sold for cheap so that helped.
For being a lazy port it still sold very well.

As for XV, I'd be interested in seeing the first week sales here if anything because again, the game did get discounted right around its second week.
 
Did we ever get final NPD LTD numbers for FF XIII? I just remember that after impressive 1.3 million opening it dropped to 91k units next month. Maybe with digital (so totals of 1.8-2 million) XV has already outsold XIII's LTD in US.

For being a lazy port it still sold very well.

As for XV, I'd be interested in seeing the first week sales here if anything because again, the game did get discounted right around its second week.

Pretty much every non-Nintendo game gets discounts few weeks after the launch. Especially during holidays.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
Did we ever get final NPD LTD numbers for FF XIII? I just remember that after impressive 1.3 million opening it dropped to 91k units next month. Maybe with digital (1.8-2 million) XV has already outsold XIII's LTD in US.
I can't share numbers but XIII actually had some decent legs.
 
Xiii was a gem to bright for this world that's why it's sales fell off. When the 13 remaster outsells that POS xii remaster you'll all see

#Top5
#2ndBestFfProtag
#Goddess
 

kswiston

Member
I'd argue FFXIII sold well despite being FFXIII. FFXHD or even FFIX managed to move more units in the same timeframe, at a far higher price point. That's because they don't have the FFXIII stigma.

FFIX didnt move more units. It was sitting at 5.3M units shipped 2.5 years after the NA release. Given the fact that it sold more in Japan than the games that followed (other than FFX after you throw in budget releases I believe), it was by far the worst selling main entry in the west post-FF7.
 

Fdkn

Member
FFIX didnt move more units. It was sitting at 5.3M units 2.5 years after the NA release. Given the fact that it sold more in Japan than the games that followed (other than FFX after you throw in budget releases I believe), it was by far the worst selling main entry in the west post-FF7.

he's talking about steam only
 
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