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Final Fantasy XV needs to sell 10 million units to succeed in team's goal

Putting aside whether they will sell 10 million units or not, there is no reason they should have to be selling 10 million.

Watching that conference yesterday and I couldn't stop thinking there is A LOT of unnecessary expenditures that really aren't doing much to move units but cost a good chunk of change.

For instance there is no need to be accumulating a cast of overpaid Hollywood voice actors. The Luminous engine has seemingly been a costly disaster. A bunch of animes that really aren't going to do much.

I know there is a logic on the part of S/E for doing all this, but it just doesnt seem to be a good logic.

It just doesn't seem worth it to spend the resources required to develop an in-house engine for these big mainstream releases. The exception is companies like EA that have the resources to develop and support these engines so that they can be used across multiple studios.

SE's Japanese studios seem to be embracing UE4 for these type of projects and I'm guessing that's going to be a lot less draining on their finances, even after royalties.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Well, let's science the @&$) out of these sales. This is without PC release and up to say spring 2017.

Here are my thoughts on the possible sales:

- Japan: 1 - 1.5 million (1 is much more likely)
- Rest of Asia/China: 1 million? (frankly no idea, wild guess)
- Everything else not including Asia, Europe and NA: ~ 1 million
- NA: 3-4 million (just don't see more here first few months)
- EU: 2 million (series less popular then NA)

So that totals somewhere between 8 and 9.5 million. Eh, then they do a PC release in the spring of 2017 and get another mil. So, it's doable just tough.
 
This might end up being another Spirits Within if it doesn't hit those sales figures. I'm expecting it'll do maybe half of that in lifetime sales. Unsurprised that 10mil is the "succeed" point based on the amount of time and money has been dropped into this game as well as its full-court press starting six months prior to launch.

Good luck SE. Hope FFXV is one of your best RPGs.

Don't worry Sakaguchi phoned Tabata to give him his advice on the demo.
 

ethomaz

Banned
After play the demo I fell sorry for them.

Bad combat system killed all the hype I had these last three days... I wish they could back to non-action battle system like good ATB.
 
Come on now. This is far from your traditional JRPG. We are not talking about Persona 5 here. Final Fantasy XV is essencially your AAA blockbuster: open world, great graphics, action oriented, setpieces-heavy, etc.

Final Fantasy don't really have that much sway in 2016. Compared to 1998, not many teenagers even are aware this franchise exist.
 

Shadoken

Member
Well, let's science the @&$) out of these sales. This is without PC release and up to say spring 2017.

Here are my thoughts on the possible sales:

- Japan: 1 - 1.5 million (1 is much more likely)
- Rest of Asia/China: 1 million? (frankly no idea, wild guess)
- Everything else not including Asia, Europe and NA: ~ 1 million
- NA: 3-4 million (just don't see more here first few months)
- EU: 2 million (series less popular then NA)

So that totals somewhere between 8 and 9.5 million. Eh, then they do a PC release in the spring of 2017 and get another mil. So, it's doable just tough.

Just curious , has any game ever done this ?
 

Jonm1010

Banned
they may be able to do it. they spent a few years comlpetely fucking up the brand but haven't put out anything in awhile so maybe the demand it there.

I have to say, and I am only speaking for myself, but FF was what made me a gamer. Yes I played games before that. All the way back to NES but FF7 is what made that first big impact.

With that said, I have lukewarm interest in FF15. The series seems to have lost its way between the PS1 and PS2. Shortly showing some promise with FF!2 but then going to an all time low with FF13. FF15 seems to be in the right direction on some things but not others.

From a sheer sales perspective, I don't think this is going to be cutting across all different types of gaming sub cultures to the extent GTA, Elder Scrolls or The Witcher 3 did.
 

wanders

Member
Yeah, they mentioned that as an approximate goal about three years back in a financial report. I see that wasn't just corporate puffery.

On the one hand, this is the sort of product that looks like it should be a 10 million copy game based on production values and scope.

On the other hand, I get the feeling it's also going to have enough rough edges and cultural dissonances to end up at 4-6 million instead.

It looks like a game stuck between two worlds (or more specifically, two geographic regions), and also like a first attempt at making an open world action RPG in an effort to be in tune with the market.

I'm expecting a Metacritic average in the 77-83 range, with a lot of people making positive statements about the direction of the series, but having a laundry list of complaints and flaws.

I'm curious to see how Square Enix ends up changing their game development going forward if this ends up hitting around half its target.

You are my minds voice. Perfect post Nirolak.
 

daveo42

Banned
What was the point of Sakaguchi showing up yesterday? It was nice to see him though.

He was probably asked or even payed to show up and show support for the game, letting the fans know the creator of FF is giving the ol' thumbs up on FFXV and its return to form that SE seemed to stress during the course of the show.

See the inclusion of Amano and Uematsu getting recognition as additional proof.
 

23qwerty

Member
PS4 is doing much better than PS3, XBOXONE is doing better than X360, we don't care about Nintendo in this case. Japan has a smaller userbase but it is somewhat remedied by the huge growth in Asia.



More than 30 million and is still kicking.
Ah so FFXV is gonna have an even better install base than XIII. Could definitely see it passing 10m. Should be a pretty solid system seller as well in Japan I'm guessing.
 
Putting aside whether they will sell 10 million units or not, there is no reason they should have to be selling 10 million to break even.

Watching that conference yesterday and I couldn't stop thinking there is A LOT of unnecessary expenditures that really aren't doing much to move units but cost a good chunk of change.

For instance there is no need to be accumulating a cast of overpaid Hollywood voice actors. The Luminous engine has seemingly been a costly disaster. A bunch of animes that really aren't going to do much and certainly don't need to

I know there is a logic on the part of S/E for doing all this, but it just doesnt seem to be a good logic.

Well the logic is that they want to get people who wouldn't normally think to buy a Final Fantasy game to buy this. If FFXIII managed to get 7 mill FFXV shouldn't have a problem getting those numbers from the existing fanbase and video game community. They want the remaining 3 million to come from people who've never bought a Final Fantasy game before. We'll see if they're successful at all.
 

Roxas

Member
Crazy expectations, but then when you spunk a shit ton of money on CGI films with an expensive cast, Anime series, custom cars, lavish events to announce the release date not to mention a fucking 10 YEAR DEVELOPMENT phase, then they really need to make money back on this thing.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Lots of pessimism here. 10m is a long shot in a reasonable timeframe, but if the game is any good it probably won't be extremely far off that. Even if the series is in a rut right now, it still has the most name recognition of any Japanese RPG that isn't Pokemon. Plenty of people would like to see the series return to form, and plenty of people are curious just how XV is going to turn out after a decade.

I mean, unless the game is just bad I can't see it doing worse than XIII.


I also don't think they ever said the movie would be free, so that probably doesn't factor in to the budget/expectation too much.
 

IronLich

Member
I can't think of many games in recent memory that even do 10 million on console. That is a very elite group nowadays. I don't think it's anywhere near realistic for a Final Fantasy game in this day and age.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
It just doesn't seem worth it to spend the resources required to develop an in-house engine for these big mainstream releases. The exception is companies like EA that have the resources to develop and support these engines so that they can be used across multiple studios.

SE's Japanese studios seem to be embracing UE4 for these type of projects and I'm guessing that's going to be a lot less draining on their finances, even after royalties.

Yeah, I think originally they were maybe going for that with the Luminous engine(could be wrong).

So I can sort of get it to an extent. But given how long this game has been in development it seems like they would of been smarter using something like Unreal for this game and then making a better determination for 16 on whether Luminous use was worth it.
 
5 mil on both ps4 and X1 (physical and digital) worlwide
1.5 PS4K
700,000 PC

Few years later 39.99$ International version (all DLC included plus all the 4k hd remaster VR stuff)
500,000 sold.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I can't think of many games in recent memory that even do 10 million on console. That is a very elite group nowadays. I don't think it's anywhere near realistic for a Final Fantasy game in this day and age.

Main Final Fantasy titles bring in the dough. Even XIII sold well, despite how it is perceived. There will be millions of sales for XV on hype alone. The quality of the title will carry it further, if it's good.
 
Well the logic is that they want to get people who wouldn't normally think to buy a Final Fantasy game to buy this. If FFXIII managed to get 7 mill FFXV shouldn't have a problem getting those numbers from the existing fanbase and video game community. They want the remaining 3 million to come from people who've never bought a Final Fantasy game before. We'll see if they're successful at all.

I don't know if anime and custom themed cars are how you draw in the kidz these days.
 
He was probably asked or even payed to show up and show support for the game, letting the fans know the creator of FF is giving the ol' thumbs up on FFXV and its return to form that SE seemed to stress during the course of the show.

See the inclusion of Amano and Uematsu getting recognition as additional proof.

I don't know.

Uematsu said "I'm sorry to say I have not written music for Final Fantasy XV" He didn't mention Shimomura at all.
 

Aters

Member
I know that the past doesn't always predict the future, but damn, that trend isn't working in their direction.

The numbers are old. They don't even have FFXIII on it. FFXII sells more than 6 million and FFXIII sells more than 7 million.
 

foras592

Member
FFXIII sold almost 8 million with a terrible word of mouth and less marketing than XV. 10 million is definitely achievable.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
Well the logic is that they want to get people who wouldn't normally think to buy a Final Fantasy game to buy this. If FFXIII managed to get 7 mill FFXV shouldn't have a problem getting those numbers from the existing fanbase and video game community. They want the remaining 3 million to come from people who've never bought a Final Fantasy game before. We'll see if they're successful at all.

FFXIII also became a pretty big pariah from the fanbase. It certainly soured me to the point I still am not sure I am interested in this.

I understand that is there logic, it just isnt a very good strategy. Hollywood voice acting has never been a needle mover for games. And Anime's? The people who will be wooed by that are a small population of that 7 million, not new fans.

Its just a bizarre strategy raising costs in areas that won't have a high enough ROI to offset them with what is clearly an already very costly game and an aesthetic and story that seems fairly outside the demographics of todays gamer.
 
I know that the past doesn't always predict the future, but damn, that trend isn't working in their direction.

10 had more sales then 9. I don't know why someones trying to demonstrate a trend with sales numbers and flipping numbers.

There's no reason 15 couldn't spike a bit. Besides, 13 and 13-2 combined did just shy of 10 million on their own.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I know that the past doesn't always predict the future, but damn, that trend isn't working in their direction.

XIII has sold 7-7.5 million despite how badly it was received.

Money is power in the era of marketing and social media.
 

KiteGr

Member
The franchise is damaged after the bad/mediocre games of the last generation and the excessive milking.

Even if the game ends up being undisputable "Game of the Generation" material, I doubt it would be as commercially successfull as they want to.
It already locked out the much of the female demographic by being a sausage fest roadtrip story.
 
A 77-83 score range would already make it a failure.

This is looking bad for them all around.

Witcher 3 set the bar on open world games, and Bloodborne/Souls series set the bar for RPG combat.

If FFXV isn't a 90+ on metacritic with massive word of mouth its gonna be a miracle if they can push 5 million copies, much less 10.

XIII has sold 7-7.5 million despite how badly it was received.

Money is power in the era of marketing and social media.

FFXIII had the good name of FF behind it still + it wasn't a bad game (It is an 83 on metacritic, and personally I liked it alot minus the linearity and Snow/Hope) + it was the first "HD" FF

All this has going for it is the hopes of people who want the FF series to be great again, and that demo did it 0 favors.
 

R-User!

Member
This game will easly do 10 million it has 10 years worth of hype, fan boy tears,list wars,gaming event appearances and has been been in more most wanted gaming top 10 over past 10 years then most games.


Even if you don't like FF, gamers I can't buy this game to see what all the fuss is about.

if it doesn't the next 10 rerelease of this game will help it those numbers.

I can see so many variables compounding to create a bit of a gaming nexus moment wherein so much word of mouth and marketing influence happens that the gaming "world" feels compelled to pick this up to essentially be a part of the zeitgeist.

Or not.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
The franchise is damaged after the bad/mediocre games of the last generation and the excessive milking.

Even if the game ends up being undisputable "Game of the Generation" material, I doubt it would be as commercially successfull as they want to.
It already locked out the much of the female demographic by being a sausage fest roadtrip story.

And the story and aesthetic is not going to appeal to a large swath of gaming demographics. Whereas a COD gamer will likely pick up GTA or Witcher, FF with its Japanese aesthetic and pounding a cheesy Stand By Me remix over a Bro Trip story is a much harder sale.

Frankly watching that trailer I'm not sure who all this marketing is actually aimed at?
 
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