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Update on Final Fantasy Versus XIII Development

duckroll

Member
sublimit said:
Kinda curious question:
Why Versus was announced as PS3 exclusive?I don't think Sony ever paid for exclusivity so it doesn't makes sense for SE to limit their market.I know Nomura likes Sony but he's not the one who makes these decisions right?

Why is Ni no Kuni a PS3 exclusive? Why are the Yakuza games PS3 exclusives? WHY WHY WHY???????????

Lol.
 

Zoe

Member
sublimit said:
Kinda curious question:
Why Versus was announced as PS3 exclusive in the first place?I don't think Sony ever paid for exclusivity so it doesn't makes sense for SE to limit their market.I know Nomura likes Sony but he's not the one who makes these decisions right?

Well he's said before that he has no idea whether it will go to the 360, but if it does it won't be his team doing it.
 
sublimit said:
Kinda curious question:
Why Versus was announced as PS3 exclusive in the first place?I don't think Sony ever paid for exclusivity so it doesn't makes sense for SE to limit their market.I know Nomura likes Sony but he's not the one who makes these decisions right?

Umm..for the same reason FF XIII once was too? It was a choice and SE and Sony are close with FF because FF sells a lot on Sony consoles.
 
sublimit said:
Kinda curious question:
Why Versus was announced as PS3 exclusive in the first place?I don't think Sony ever paid for exclusivity so it doesn't makes sense for SE to limit their market.I know Nomura likes Sony but he's not the one who makes these decisions right?

When Versus was announced as a PS3 exclusive FF13 was too, presumably because FF has always been on only one major console at a time for the main series. SE made the decision to change that - but only for XIII - which is why people are intrigued about if Versus will do the same. Time will tell, but right now it's PS3 only.
 

sublimit

Banned
duckroll said:
Why is Ni no Kuni a PS3 exclusive? Why are the Yakuza games PS3 exclusives? WHY WHY WHY???????????

Lol.
I know the answers to those questions but i don't think that similar reasons apply to the Versus situation.:p
Btw i'm not trying to stir a console war or something,i don't even have a 360.
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
sublimit said:
Kinda curious question:
Why Versus was announced as PS3 exclusive in the first place?I don't think Sony ever paid for exclusivity so it doesn't makes sense for SE to limit their market.I know Nomura likes Sony but he's not the one who makes these decisions right?
Business models change all the time; it's normal, and you can't take anything for granted. Square Enix was just adapting to the market, along with everyone else. There are some benefits of making it an exclusive though. You can develop to that hardware's strengths; more marketing support from the platform holder, etc. There are hardly any third-party exclusives nowadays, and it's going to be like that for a long time now due to rising development costs. Also, I'm not sure about Versus as well, but it seems to me that it's going to be an exclusive, otherwise SE would have announced the multi status by now.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
i would guess that they would transplant Versus over to 360 if they thought it would be worth their while. It depends on how well the 360 version of XIII went and if it ended up doing more good for them than just keep it exclusive.

Maybe they only sold 10% more than they would have otherwise. You know that a lot of people back when the XIII was released probably had a PS3 waiting for FF, and ended up getting it on a console they preferred to use.

not to mention, they didnt even bother having a 360 version for Japan.


I think for them, its not going to matter as much. If you're an FF fan, you'll have the console its on. Also, a lot more people have PS3s now anyway, so its a little less risky to keep it as an exclusive.
 

sublimit

Banned
davepoobond said:
i would guess that they would transplant Versus over to 360 if they thought it would be worth their while. It depends on how well the 360 version of XIII went and if it ended up doing more good for them than just keep it exclusive.

Maybe they only sold 10% more than they would have otherwise. You know that a lot of people back when the XIII was released probably had a PS3 waiting for FF, and ended up getting it on a console they preferred to use.

not to mention, they didnt even bother having a 360 version for Japan.


I think for them, its not going to matter as much. If you're an FF fan, you'll have the console its on. Also, a lot more people have PS3s now anyway, so its a little less risky to keep it as an exclusive.
Good points.Has SE released any sales numbers of XIII's 360 version?
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
sublimit said:
Good points.Has SE released any sales numbers of XIII's 360 version?

I've seen a 1-1.5 mil figure float around for the 360 version and 3.5-4.5mil for the PS3 version.

I think that was from totalling NPD + MC + some general EU chart figures.

Nothing concrete and we will probably never find out to be honest.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
M_Night said:
I've seen a 1-1.5 mil figure float around for the 360 version and 3.5-4.5mil for the PS3 version.

I think that was from totalling NPD + MC + some general EU chart figures.

Nothing concrete and we will probably never find out to be honest.

1-1.5 is probably accurate. The biggest thing to note is that it didn't push sales beyond previous entries, even though it was on two platforms this time. This generation is an odd one... bigger user base doesn't necessarily equal bigger sales.

Also, lol at Kotaku for posting a year old story.
 

sublimit

Banned
Kagari said:
1-1.5 is probably accurate. The biggest thing to note is that it didn't push sales beyond previous entries, even though it was on two platforms this time. This generation is an odd one... bigger user base doesn't necessarily equal bigger sales.

But they probably weren't surprised of its overall performance since Wada was estimating 6-6.5 milion overall sales if i remember correctly one of his quotes.
Unless they secretly had higher expectations.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
duckroll said:
Why is Ni no Kuni a PS3 exclusive? Why are the Yakuza games PS3 exclusives? WHY WHY WHY???????????

Lol.

...because if they were multi-plat from the start then we couldn't have BETRAYALATON threads!
 

StuBurns

Banned
The FFXIII's were almost certainly some sort of money hat, co-marketing, lower royalty rates, something like that. I don't really think Ni no Kuni is the same. Level-5 have showed disdain towards MS after they fucked them over with their Xbox MMO, and with the game's focus so clearly on the Japanese market, producing a 360 SKU wouldn't really make any difference, then when it comes to a Western release, the additional sales might not warrant the cost of porting.

Versus' exclusivity is going to be interesting, I won't be surprised if it stays PS3 only, or if it comes to 360 day one, or if there's an expanded version which comes to both a year after the normal one is PS3 only. Anything could happen with it really.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
sublimit said:
But they probably weren't surprised of its overall performance since Wada was estimating 6-6.5 milion overall sales if i remember correctly one of his quotes.
Unless they secretly had higher expectations.

Actually, looking at NA/EU/JP known numbers, it's closer to 1 million for the 360 version. Wada had high expectations for sure... but the fact is, sell-through is definitely not at 6 million for FFXIII taking in the three major regions into account. It's closer to 5something.
 
I kinda hope FFv13 stays exclusive. I felt like when XIII went multi plat it kinda lost value. I thought it was a pretty good game though.. i think alot of ppl kinda expected too much from it. Im sure V13 will redeem XIII's name... as PS3 exclusive.
 
Kagari said:
1-1.5 is probably accurate. The biggest thing to note is that it didn't push sales beyond previous entries, .

The only reason for that is the quality, IMO. Not trolling, being completely serious. Friends of mine just weren't interested because of what they heard. They were perfectly aware of it and had either system.
 

StuBurns

Banned
FateBreaker said:
The only reason for that is the quality, IMO. Not trolling, being completely serious. Friends of mine just weren't interested because of what they heard. They were perfectly aware of it and had either system.
Are you suggesting PS3 only owners were not aware of it's quality?
 

GorillaJu

Member
StuBurns said:
Are you suggesting PS3 only owners were not aware of it's quality?
I would say that it's possible more x360 owners who dont have PS3s werent already "guaranteed sales" and thus since word of mouth about the game was generally lackluster, fewer of that base bought the game.

It goes without saying that if the game was higher quality overall, it would have sold better on both platforms.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Kagari said:
Actually, looking at NA/EU/JP known numbers, it's closer to 1 million for the 360 version. Wada had high expectations for sure... but the fact is, sell-through is definitely not at 6 million for FFXIII taking in the three major regions into account. It's closer to 5something.

So the sales go like this?

4m - PS3
~1m - 360
 

Chev

Member
Kagari said:
1-1.5 is probably accurate. The biggest thing to note is that it didn't push sales beyond previous entries, even though it was on two platforms this time. This generation is an odd one... bigger user base doesn't necessarily equal bigger sales.
Isn't the userbase smaller though? We're nowhere near the crazy numbers of the PS2.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
StuBurns said:
The install base of the PS2 at the time of FFX was way smaller than the PS360 install base at the time of FFXIII.

True. But there was also considerably less wait for FFX from FFIX, and the leap graphically from FFIX to FFX was quite substantial. Not that XII to XIII wasn't substantial, but going from pre-rendered BGs to 3D ones was pretty "whoa" for most people. ^^;
 

StuBurns

Banned
I just think it was a better game, and sold accordingly. Same for MGS2 versus 3 despite the massive install base difference.

If you consider the GTA PS2 sales, it's not as if the install base stopped playing games, they just played less of some games.
 

Dunan

Member
duckroll said:
No, they're going to push KH3D and Theatrhythm heavily instead. Maybe even Bravely Default. Jump Festa is an event for younger audiences after all.

With this in mind, I hope it's those two games that get the focus and not Versus. The last thing I want to see is marketing wonks teenagerizing Versus. Let the kids have the KH series, Theatrythm, and the 4WOL games and leave some other stuff for the older crowd.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Dunan said:
With this in mind, I hope it's those two games that get the focus and not Versus. The last thing I want to see is marketing wonks teenagerizing Versus. Let the kids have the KH series, Theatrythm, and the 4WOL games and leave some other stuff for the older crowd.

Versus is definitely marketed toward teenagers, like every other FF game ever made.
 

Aeana

Member
Dunan said:
With this in mind, I hope it's those two games that get the focus and not Versus. The last thing I want to see is marketing wonks teenagerizing Versus. Let the kids have the KH series, Theatrythm, and the 4WOL games and leave some other stuff for the older crowd.
I'm confused. How is Versus not "teenagerized"? Did you see the announcement trailer where Noctis is fighting mans with 13 weapons?
 

Dunan

Member
Aeana said:
I'm confused. How is Versus not "teenagerized"? Did you see the announcement trailer where Noctis is fighting mans with 13 weapons?

@Man God and Aeana - I didn't see that announcement, though I can imagine it. Perhaps I should have said "obnoxiously teenagerized" in the sense that the game might actually be offputting to those 20 or over, in opposition to games like FF12, FF Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Tactics Ogre which are fully enjoyable no matter how old you are. I want Versus to be like the games in that latter group. Some of the screenshots and trailers have implied that it might be.
 

Somnid

Member
StuBurns said:
The install base of the PS2 at the time of FFX was way smaller than the PS360 install base at the time of FFXIII.

While we can reasonably assume there was 1 PS2 per person, it's a little more of stretch to think 360 and PS3 sales don't overlap especially in the Final Fantasy demographic. But overall there is very likely franchise fatigue. Wouldn't be surprising given half the games coming out of Square have a Final Fantasy label on them.
 
Man God said:
Versus is definitely marketed toward teenagers, like every other FF game ever made.
Some FF games and other SE games are still aimed to a little bit older audience. Like FFXII. Doesn't mean games like that can't be enjoyed by any age though.

I don't know where Versus stands yet. When it was just the CG concept it looked like something for the older SE fans. Now after the last trailer it doesn't look any more mature than FFXIII and Agito XIII. At least the setting is grounded in reality unlike the other two games.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Somnid said:
While we can reasonably assume there was 1 PS2 per person, it's a little more of stretch to think 360 and PS3 sales don't overlap especially in the Final Fantasy demographic. But overall there is very likely franchise fatigue. Wouldn't be surprising given half the games coming out of Square have a Final Fantasy label on them.
Even if they overlapped one to one the install base would have still been larger.
 
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