Starfield outsold Final Fantasy XVI year to date even though its on Gamepass and just released?
SquareEnix execs:
Lets see how things stack up after FFXVI gets released on PC.
Also, lets see how sales are in the long term, because its particularly the enduring popularity of previous Bethesda releases that's made them stand out from the rest.
Honestly, Bethesda sales always need to be contextualized by those of other/previous Bethesda releases if you want to judge then. In business its always about profitability then versus now, because past performance has to inform future plans and investments.
Platform/service competitive performance overall is a obviously relevant now given MS' ownership, but that's a whole other calculation and as FFXVI isn't part of that "value" metric you can't compare on that element.
Regardless of what anyone says now, the truth is going to become evident over time. I suspect SE's game will do pretty good on PC, especially as that great initial 2hour section is going to stop a lot of refunding.