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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
If S/E was smart about building bridges to a new fanbase, they would apologize profusely to Matsuno for ruining his story and give him control of Final Fantasy IMO.
FF12 was ahead of its time. At least the original draft until they chased Matsuno off and forced awful changes.
A game about a grizzled war veteran, framed for his king's death, seeking answers and revenge, teaming up with a pirate crew, with Game of Thrones like political intrigue and backstabbing.
THAT would be a much easier sell to broad demographic audiences of 2016 then a boy band road trip listening to covers of Stand By Me.
YankeeDonB
Member
I like Matsuno and Smith, but they don't gain much from flashy action heavy cg. Maybe they can do something for the local repertory theater.
bluecapsule
Member
I could see it happening, as long as the final product + reviews are good. Final Fantasy is still a huge franchise. The Witcher 3 is a much a smaller franchise, and that's already nearing 10 million LTD within its first year.
FF was a huge franchise and The Witcher was a small franchise.
The Witcher isn't a small franchise anymore. It is yet to be seen if after the lost goodwill from FF13 if FF is still a huge franchise.
Kingdom hearts 2 final mix on critical mode has better gameplay. Souls are good but let's be real : gameplay is clunky, slow as fuck and feels unfinished. I enjoy them but let's not pretend they're the best games ever made.
Orthogonal
Member
Game will sell well, but 10M is a tall order. There just aren't enough PS4's and X1's out there. 10M is a very high attach rate, how many other franchises have that this gen?
PC is all but confirmed now I guess, they will need that base for sure.
Might as well throw in a Demo for FFVII: Remake while they are at it.
PC is all but confirmed now I guess, they will need that base for sure.
Might as well throw in a Demo for FFVII: Remake while they are at it.
Couldn't disagree more. I never said they are the best games ever made so don't start the hyperbole, I did say they have the best crafted gameplay of any action RPG and I would include Kingdom Hearts. Gameplay is not just controls, which the Souls series is no slouch in either mind you.
Also Bloodborne isn't slow and clunky.
Wow @ Legend 8 outselling 9 by a huge margin!
And people tried to laugh when I pointed out that FF8 was the better game and the best in the series, more beloved and more popular than 9!
It's no wonder they went back to the iconic FF8 aesthestic with XV, they KNOW what the fanbase wants.
9 came at the end of the ps1's life and 8 was riding on the hype from 7, I don't think quality has anything to do with the sales.
I find it funny that peolpe think 10m is some impossible goal for this game. FFXIII is probably the worst of the modern FF games, had a pretty overwhelming negative WOM and STILL managed to reach almost 7m. This game has a lot of hype going for it, surrounding all that stuff with Versus, and people are very receptive of the trailers and how the game looks, if it has good WOM come release, I don't see that hard to reach 10m during its entire life-span.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
What was the install base when 13 came out?
MickeyKnox
Member
1M units per/year of development?
Matsuno's leave is not SE's fault. It's a personal decision. Also, he is always on good term with SE, even now he's a huge FFXIV fan.
Thats unfortunate. Though even if Matsuno is on good terms, it doesnt change the fact S/E should profusely apologize for ruining the one actual high quality story they had the chance to output under the FF banner haha.
And I love FF6 and 7 while saying that.
NoctisVsStar
Member
I know this might this kinda of silly but an idea just came to mind. Framerates issues aside. Wouldn't be cool if a thread was created or we can do it here, where people upload their combat videos and perhaps idk help try to see what could be wrong with their play to make it click? Granted, I'm sure some won't like it no matter what. But it can be constructive and help out some folks.
I hear people say they hold the button but I really don't play that way or smash.
I hear people say they hold the button but I really don't play that way or smash.
They aren't projecting 10 million but saying they need to sell 10 million to be successful.
Though I would hope they built this assuming they could hit that target. But like i said earlier, their entire strategy seems flawed and has unnecessarily added costs IMO.
NinjamicWZ
Banned
Good luck. Doesn't seem too hard a feat, to be honest. The fan base is strong, the hype is strong, the marketing is strong and it's got what seems to be a formula and style that can appeal to many audiences if it delivers. They need a better demo up for public consumption, asap, though. I doubt it will be crippled and mutilated in the way last year's fallen star was either.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
Probably should post this in the demo thread noct. But i agree, i actually picked up a few things watching you vid like the mid air warp combos
Final Fantasy XV needs to be good and strengthen the brand. SE is making great money from FF XIV and other endeavors.
Every penny they spend on XV to be good will be returned on building the name of Square Enix into something respectable again.
No way it will sell the 10 mill, but XV has to be good and the indirect rewards will be worth it.
Every penny they spend on XV to be good will be returned on building the name of Square Enix into something respectable again.
No way it will sell the 10 mill, but XV has to be good and the indirect rewards will be worth it.
Yeah, i think everything from the Uncovered event itself, is equally aimed at selling the game but also at rekindle the idea that SE is a top AAA developer.
Is anybody surprised? It was in development for 10 years, went through 2 generations of consoles, changed directors and direction, and was pretty much in development hell like no other.
10 million speaks to the money wasted in development, not production value. Hopefully they can prevent this from happening again.
10 million speaks to the money wasted in development, not production value. Hopefully they can prevent this from happening again.
Yeeeeeeah, you are saying FF XV will sell 20m+ LT, which is, huum... Lol not even Pokèmon sells that much in those recent years.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
Well crafted gameplay does not automatically mean well crafted combat.
Mechainically the combat in souls games is very simple. It works with what they are trying to do, but there is a reason nobody remembers the last character action game From software made (Ninja blade).
JuanLatino
Member
it wasn't really in development for 10 years.
10 Mio means success and not break even.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
I agree with this, if XV is a great game it will change the perception of Square Enix and the Final Fantasy brand. That's invaluable.
Lets look at this as best as we can though.
On the low end, Mainline Final Fantasy games generally sell about 5 million copies, on the high end, they can sell 8-10 million. However the best selling games of the franchise (VII, VIII, and X) came out a long time ago on consoles that had much stronger japanese audience participation and JRPGs were more popular at the time (hell VII made JRPGs popular on playstation).
If the game isnt great then the ceiling for this game is probably 5 million copies, so just for the sake of argument, lets say the game comes out and earns a 90 metacritic score and has great word of mouth.
We are now in a situation with a strong franchise that has sold 8-10 million in the past, in a release window that currently is not inhabited by Destiny, Mass Effect, or even Assassins Creed. All three of those delays could be a huge benefit to XV.
We also have quite a bit of marketing surrounding the title, SE is making a CGI movie, an anime, a car, etc to help push the game so it sounds like advertising is not going to be in short supply.
There's also a bit of a mystique about this game, It's The Last Guardian of JRPG's, it just has a certain aura around it that a normal game wont have. This could end up hurting the game due to people getting frustrated with such a long and drawn out development cycle, or the game not being able to live up to 10 years of building expectations. Or it could help the game due to all the pent up hype finally coming out.
Now with all this being said, will FFXV sell 10 million copies? Probably not, COULD it sell 10 million copies? Sure it could.
So between the "lol it wont sell a million after XIII!" and "It will sell 10 no problem!" posts we've been getting, i would guess it's probably going to end up somewhere in the middle, around 7 million copies. Which would hopefully get most of Square's money back, and raise the reputation of Square Enix/Final Fantasy if its as good as we hope it is.
Combat to me is as good as anything in the action RPG genre IMO. The bar isnt exactly high though.
Kingdom Hearts was the one alternative proposed and it to is pretty darn simple if we are calling Souls games simple mechanically.
But i guess I don't understand the point of separating gameplay and combat. Complex combat doesn't mean anything on its own if it doesn't ultimately make the gameplay any good. It seems like the sort of pointless argument that only would happen out of boredom in enthusiast corners, which is why I said gameplay instead.
metalslimer
Member
Unless they absolutely nail it which it seems like there will be some problems I don't see it. I think it will do better than13 though
The Artisan
Member
Why does it have to?
hemo memo
Gold Member
That's easy. I honestly think it can hit that target and surpass it. I don't know it's just a feeling and if what they say and hype for the game so far is true.
Mr. Poolman
Member
So, this will be the only Final Fantasy to live up to its name?
10 million copies! Yikes? Let's see, doesn't publisher/developer earn together about $28 dollars from the retail sale from a $60 game? After retail cut and the console manufacturer cut and the cost of distribution? This game costed a little bit above a quarter of billion dollars@ to develop? Damn. I hope it doesn't flop.
@28*10,000,000=280,000,000
@28*10,000,000=280,000,000
Im just surprised they decided to compound the costs by chasing low ROI strategies like an anime, CGI movie and a cast of expensive voice actors.
They probably aren't forecasting all of those sales to be at full retail price, but still, the total cost is probably pretty darn high.
James Scott
Banned
Kingdom Hearts 2, for one. It's being made by the same people, but the two demos aren't very promising.
Seems like they want to make action based combat but they're keeping enemy movements and health similar to FF12 or the turn based FF games.
Enemies take a lot of hits to take down and it doesn't feel very good most of the time.
If the combat/gameplay isn't up to snuff then the story will have to make up for it and Square Enix hasn't provided much reason to be confident in that regard.
Bayonetta is combat focused, Elder Scrolls has exploration, Witcher 3 has meaningful side quests, it's yet to be seen if XV has any strengths.
Duscae feels like an early 360 era ubisoft game in terms of traversal. Noctis's running speed is terrible and he stops for a breather every once in awhile. His jump isn't much better either.
The combat doesn't compare favorably to similar types of combat systems like Bayonetta. It feels very automated and you can't interrupt a lot of actions making things like the dodge/block and switching weapons mid combo feel rather clunky.
The killer move that people love so much is an unlockable in Bayonetta 2 where you teleport to enemies so there's no down time and it's also done better there.
DarkLordMalik
Member
The game definitely didn't cost more than 200 million. That would be insane. I bet the budget is around $100 to $150 million and this covers marketing too. Sony Pictures might be co-financing the FFXV movie which will save some cost for it.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Otherwise Tabata will turn into a Cie'th.
Assuming Final Fantasy XV is well received, it'll probably reach numbers like that eventually. The keyword here is eventually.
Keep in mind that even XIII eventually got near 7 million, and real talk, that game was kinda bad. Negative word of mouth definitely hurt long term sales there.
Keep in mind that unlike Final Fantasy VII, XV is coming out on two platforms immediately, with a PC version likely following behind some months later. This is likely why XIII sold decently despite a poor reception.
Even XIV, which requires a subcription to play, has sold six million plus copies as well.
So no, it's not hard to believe that over the course of three to four years they will at least be in the vicinity of ten million units sold.
Now if they were talking within that first year, yeah there's no way. XD
Keep in mind that even XIII eventually got near 7 million, and real talk, that game was kinda bad. Negative word of mouth definitely hurt long term sales there.
Keep in mind that unlike Final Fantasy VII, XV is coming out on two platforms immediately, with a PC version likely following behind some months later. This is likely why XIII sold decently despite a poor reception.
Even XIV, which requires a subcription to play, has sold six million plus copies as well.
So no, it's not hard to believe that over the course of three to four years they will at least be in the vicinity of ten million units sold.
Now if they were talking within that first year, yeah there's no way. XD
The fan base ain't what it used to be- my friends won't touch a FF or JRPG any longer. I'm also on the fence about it. I'll be waiting for reviews and Neogaf impressions before I pull the trigger.
Afro Samurai
Banned
I can see that possible with DLCs.