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Final Fantasy XV needs to sell 10 million units to succeed in team's goal
- Thread starter James Scott
- Start date
The market in Asia is bigger than you think, especially when it comes to Japanese games. There is a reason why many Japanese games get Chinese version before English version. And the boy band thing can be an appeal in Asian market.
Honestly, I suspect Square has already started looking at things. There's gotta be a damn good reason they're using UE4 instead of Luminous for their major titles now. Probably decided it would be less of a headache and cheaper overall.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
O but of course lol i dont expect much out of luminous, its beautiful but it seems its too much trouble. Best believe whether this meets expectations or not a few things will change
TheJollyCorner
Member
Like has been mentioned by other posters much smarter than myself: the cost of XV, the supplemental material, the massive LA event, etc- it's not just for benefit of XV, but for the entire series.
It's Square-Enix's way of saying " Alright... enough of the vitriol... Final Fantasy is back."
XIV:ARR and XV productions show the passion for reigniting the franchise and, more importantly, desire for internal change. Going forward with VII-R and cranking out mid-tier JRPGs for the big consoles also shows me that S-E realizes last gen really took a beating on their public image.
I hope XV is a wonderful product; not just for my own person satisfaction, but to really show the world that S-E is committed to excellence again.
It's Square-Enix's way of saying " Alright... enough of the vitriol... Final Fantasy is back."
XIV:ARR and XV productions show the passion for reigniting the franchise and, more importantly, desire for internal change. Going forward with VII-R and cranking out mid-tier JRPGs for the big consoles also shows me that S-E realizes last gen really took a beating on their public image.
I hope XV is a wonderful product; not just for my own person satisfaction, but to really show the world that S-E is committed to excellence again.
Mr Fahrenheit
Member
I see Squeenix is one-upping Capcom in the crazy sales expectations department.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
How many years since Versus? Jesus. That's a lot of years to keep development going. PLEASE don't be as awful as Duke Nukem Forever. I'm fearing the worst for this game:'(
SolicitorPirate
Member
I agree with your first paragraph
Regarding your second however, I don't think you fully appreciate the realities of the SEA market. I grew up in the environment and have been playing games since I was five.
Yes, there is a middle class (though I feel that class is not as big as you might think. With the exception of Singapore, the countries you listed have a disproportionately large lower class), but buying power for foreign goods still remain low. I reiterate my point that while I was still working in Malaysia, PS3 games where RM180+. If you think American consumers have a hard time swallowing USD60 games, imagine what it's like paying triple that.
Additionally, piracy culture is huge. Even though pirated games largely died out with the PS3 and now 4, there are still strong cultural remnants that paying for games is dumb. The market would much sooner go for F2P and pirated PC games. That isn't to say SAE isn't a viable market, it's just that the numbers from this region are going to be much lower than the US, EU and Japan.
Finally, while I acknowledge Japan exports a lot of games to SAE, a big part of that is because it's really cheap to localise. The market typically does not demand dubs, and quite regularly there is no localisation what so ever. Asian PSN is filled with Japanese games with zero localisation
FF brand had a good reputation when 13 released. Not so much now. It has become more and more irrelevant over the years.
It will meet 10 million, most main title Final Fantasy games meet expectation.
Square is smart though, they know once the game is made they can make a ton of money off of merchandise and the name brand alone. Hopefully this game becomes the new Final Fantasy VII and Square can stop milking VII and move on to better things.
The company's new management has been doing wonders, I'm glad things are looking good for them.
Square is smart though, they know once the game is made they can make a ton of money off of merchandise and the name brand alone. Hopefully this game becomes the new Final Fantasy VII and Square can stop milking VII and move on to better things.
The company's new management has been doing wonders, I'm glad things are looking good for them.
I think FFXIII sold like 7 or 8 million off of one release. Don't underestimate FFXV. Final Fantasy will reclaim its throne. You'll all see.
Versus was never really in much form of development, good amount of the team was working on trying to get other projects like FF13 out the door and FFX.
So I really don't think the Versus development cost that much.
Depends on how you or S/E defines bomb TBH.
Firmus_Anguis
Banned
I just hope they make a great game. If they do, it might sell beyond that number! Seeing that car-airship hybrid has me excited as hell though!
Numbers are less important then revenue. If it sells 7 million copies but 5 million are at an unfavorable price point due to unwanted more aggressive price cuts due to lower then projected release window sales, that isn't so good.
I think it would take an almost unprecedented scale of bombing to get them to cut KH or FF7R but I do think if this comes well under expectations there will be some serious strategy shake ups and panic. That probably won't leave some of those games unscathed.
I just hope that it is a bit better then the trailer we got last night, I am still cringing at the Stand By Me cover. Whoever thought that was a good idea to center the trailer around needs to step away from the marketing department for a while.
Ganondorfo
Junior Member
Its going to sell 10 million units, because it got 3 videos on the top page of Reddit and it got 5 threads on Neogaf yesterday. So I think this game is going to be popular.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
A time when your CGI ads are feature length.
YankeeDonB
Member
To each their own, but I loved that cover and thought its use here did a better job than prior trailers at drawing out the melancholy friendship theme they seem to be going for.
I think the big mistake was feeling they had to do another demo.
astroturfing
Member
so, will this be the Final... Fantasy?
i'm sure no one has made this joke before.
i'm sure no one has made this joke before.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
No way this is gonna happen. How much did this game cost to make?
Call of Duty is as much a phenomenon than just a result of marketing - if anything, I'd say that the marketing is to keep the phenomenon going.
Also, Japan is extremely controlling over American marketing, especially at Square. So I'm sure they have some awesome ideas that could sell copies that Japan just wouldn't allow.
I mean, I'm sure someone at Square USA was like "Stand By Me? Can we not?" and Japan was all "This is our vision. You must use it in every ad" thereby limiting its sales right off the bat.
I haven't seen it, but just your description made me cringe
I think for a new IP or a forgotten IP in American mainstream like FF, marketing, particularly TV, makes all the difference. Just look at The Division and Destiny. Massive marketing budgets for new IP that had no mainstream recognition prior and sold well out of the gate. FF just doesn't have mainstream cache anymore and they'll need the mainstream audience to hit 10 million.
It'll help, but those are still HUGE numbers to hit.
And, again, I don't trust Japan to approve ads that will actually help sell the game to Americans - ad money doesn't help if the ads don't connect.
The games you're talking about have crack American marketing teams selling to Americans, whereas Japan will insist on putting its stamp on everything for this game and force it through, even if the US office literally tells them "this song is old and will turn off anyone under the age of 40."
AwakenedCloud
Member
Unless there's some weird free to play model, I don't see this happening.
5 threads?
Once there were 11 FFXV threads on the first page.
So much hype and so many haters in the same time.
I mean don't get me wrong I actually think Florence Welch has a great voice but it just completely missed the mark to me when contrasted with the trailer. If I were a marketing director trying to reach a broader Western audience I would of looked at them stupid if they presented this trailer to me.
Had this just been a song released by her I would probably appreciate it more.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
This is a shining example of how out of control the AAA industry has become.
Vincent Grayson
Member
I'm pretty sure it's been common knowledge for a while that Luminous was a disaster, and will likely only ever be used for FFXV because it was too far along to change.
entremet
Member
A full remake already? That would kill SE financially lol
YankeeDonB
Member
Ah gotcha, fair enough. I probably don't have good instincts for marketing, just know what I like and I thought it worked surprisingly well in trailer.
I think it is going to come down to reception and marketing for this game.
To hit that mark effectively(not having most sales be at a lower revenue discount price) they will need to broaden their brand appeal in the West AND recapture the disillusioned fanbase they lost from FF13.
Seems like what they have managed to output with Unreal 4, they might be wise to just start using that across the board for their franchises.
Seems each gen they have struggled with engine creation and its held back their output.
J_ToSaveTheDay
Member
I think this ridiculous break-even point comes from the costs of the very long development of this game, and maybe not from Square-Enix being smug as hell about Final Fantasy as a potential powerhouse franchise. With nearly a decade in development, I'd guess they're just glad to make any revenue on it at all rather than having it still take up resources in development.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Thought this thread would just be an endless stream of Tidus laughing gifs.
FF13 destroyed the series' relevancy.
From the period of time when I was 10 to the time when I was 20, I saw the release of Final Fantasy 1, Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy 9, and Final Fantasy Tactics (plus lots of other spin-offs and not-really-FF-but-we'll-call-them-that games). There was plenty of great gaming to be had there and even if you didn't like an entry or two, who cares? And that was just Final Fantasy - Squaresoft was pumping out all sorts of other awesome non-FF RPGs at the time as well.
Somebody who is 20 now, maybe saw FF12 when they were young and since then it's pretty much just been FF13 & its two sequels and a failed MMORPG that got rebooted into a pretty good MMORPG. Unless this 20 year-old gamer is a hardcore RPG fan who went back and checked out the older games, there's a very good chance that Final Fantasy has little to no relevancy to them.
I really don't think "Japanese company tries to make anime Elder Scrolls starring a boy band" is going to be very attractive to newer gamers who don't already like Final Fantasy. And with the drastic changes to gameplay & style plus the disappointment of years of Lightning, I think many of the old-time FF fans aren't very excited either. I couldn't help but notice that although the Nintendo/Rapp news was one of the top Twitter trends in the US briefly, I failed to see FF show up at all when the release date was leaked. I just don't think many people care.
In Japan, it may fare better, but the console install base for the PS4 just isn't there. And of course, the XBO is a joke in Japan.
On a personal note, I told my 15-year old daughter who is a big FF fan (her favorites are 7 & 9) about the launch date when it got leaked and asked her what she thought about FF15. She said she'll probably play it at some point just because it's a mainline FF but she's not excited for it at all. She's super-psyched for Persona 5 though.
FF13 destroyed the series' relevancy.
From the period of time when I was 10 to the time when I was 20, I saw the release of Final Fantasy 1, Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy 9, and Final Fantasy Tactics (plus lots of other spin-offs and not-really-FF-but-we'll-call-them-that games). There was plenty of great gaming to be had there and even if you didn't like an entry or two, who cares? And that was just Final Fantasy - Squaresoft was pumping out all sorts of other awesome non-FF RPGs at the time as well.
Somebody who is 20 now, maybe saw FF12 when they were young and since then it's pretty much just been FF13 & its two sequels and a failed MMORPG that got rebooted into a pretty good MMORPG. Unless this 20 year-old gamer is a hardcore RPG fan who went back and checked out the older games, there's a very good chance that Final Fantasy has little to no relevancy to them.
I really don't think "Japanese company tries to make anime Elder Scrolls starring a boy band" is going to be very attractive to newer gamers who don't already like Final Fantasy. And with the drastic changes to gameplay & style plus the disappointment of years of Lightning, I think many of the old-time FF fans aren't very excited either. I couldn't help but notice that although the Nintendo/Rapp news was one of the top Twitter trends in the US briefly, I failed to see FF show up at all when the release date was leaked. I just don't think many people care.
In Japan, it may fare better, but the console install base for the PS4 just isn't there. And of course, the XBO is a joke in Japan.
On a personal note, I told my 15-year old daughter who is a big FF fan (her favorites are 7 & 9) about the launch date when it got leaked and asked her what she thought about FF15. She said she'll probably play it at some point just because it's a mainline FF but she's not excited for it at all. She's super-psyched for Persona 5 though.
Alex_Mexico
Member
Nearly? How about more than a decade? By the time this game launches it will have been 10 years and 4 months since it initial announcement. That's not counting the period prior to the announcement of VsXIII that was spent in production as well.
Stand By Me the movie is huge in Japan. I thought the song did a lot of favors for the trailer tbh, the 'tone' has always seemed weird with this game, but playing it with that song? Now it suddenly made perfect sense to me.
I DO however think the song is probably a lot more culturally ingrained with the movie there, whereas here people probably know the song more, and the movie is the tone they're hitting.
7DollarHagane
Banned
It'd not impossible. If it really reviews well and catches on it could probably do that over 5-6 years of sales at various price points. On PC as well.
A big gap between major FF releases and the epic failed FFXIV initial launch will do that. You are still discounting the enormous boost the series got with ARR. Heck, even the recent FFRK app is a big success.
KojiKnight
Member
So if this game significantly underperforms... is it going to be the death of mainline final fantasy games?