Gaiff
SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Budget? DD2 probably cost half of FF XVI to produce.
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Final Fantasy 16 Extremely Underperformed On PC; Sold Only 289K Units Since Launch
- Thread starter AW_CL
- Start date
Mr Moose
Member
Oh, I wouldn't have checked the article if it wasn't for this. This mother fucker again. I hope everyone stops giving this guy attention, he does this shit for the Twitter engagement $. He doesn't know shit.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Square Enix just likes to shit on all of their game sales. Its been like this for a decade. Remember when tomb raider sold 3.5 million in the first month and they were like this is a disappointment?
FF16 is a $70 game and sold 3 million in a week. Thats $210 million. SE are just being little bitches.
Figures? Without "probably".
Gp1
Member
Nothing looks bright for square enix
Their AAA are expensive to make, bland and does not perform well. 3m sales in one platform simply isn't enough for a game of that size.
Imho it looks like a BioWare in making sans DEI.
They simply can't hit the spot in the RPGs anymore (not with their AAA), can't balance their games and they need appeal to the masses in their high stakes game. And as a result, their games feel like something that tries to cater to everyone and fails to serve their RPG fans well.
Imho they has a massive identity crisis since last generation and the best thing that could happen is Square focusing on the smaller games.
Funeral fantasy 15 is dark af when you consider all the cross-media.
Almost every numbered FF has a somewhat dark tone.
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FoxMcChief
Gold Member
Efren is G.O.A.T.
Member
It was a good game but not enough to move the needle in the grand scheme of things. I'm saddened to say this as FF is my in top 3 franchises but it's the truth.
Tiago Rodrigues
Member
And if you think about it, i can't imagine Counter Strike doing as good on consoles as it does on PC. Just like Valorant doesn't. It's okay. All sorts of options and audiences out there.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
I hope Square takes a long, hard look at BG3. Universally loved GOTY that made a shitload of money, while staying true to the series’ roots and feeling modern at the same time.
Square instead thinks it was a good idea to make everyone mash the X button and watch the screen fill with particle effects while Clive does somersaults. I tapped out on FF after FFXV and FF7R.
Square instead thinks it was a good idea to make everyone mash the X button and watch the screen fill with particle effects while Clive does somersaults. I tapped out on FF after FFXV and FF7R.
Mozzarella
Member
Thats because SquareEnix are so awful at marketing.
A game like Final Fantasy XVI could make a lot of money if they:
-Released it day 1 on PC, fully optimized and polished
-Did proper marketing with build up prior to its release, showing gameplay, releasing trailers and creating hype
You can't just stealth release a game 1 day later with no actual hype or build up and expect people to care, if im not wrong they also chose a date where another big game was released.
I honestly doubt it, i think their problem isn't being turnbased or action, its about proper marketing first and actual quality second.
If a game of Rebirth caliber were to release Day 1 on Steam, with proper marketing i'm nearly 100% sure it will have great numbers, they have all ingredients for success.
-Open World
-Action based so its more flashy
-Iconic cast of characters and has a legacy name behind it
-High quality all over the place
-Visually looks great
All they need to do is market it well and have it optimized for PC, then easy money printing.
A game like Final Fantasy XVI could make a lot of money if they:
-Released it day 1 on PC, fully optimized and polished
-Did proper marketing with build up prior to its release, showing gameplay, releasing trailers and creating hype
You can't just stealth release a game 1 day later with no actual hype or build up and expect people to care, if im not wrong they also chose a date where another big game was released.
Do you think that if Final Fantasy goes back to turn-based it will magically be more successful and make more money?
I honestly doubt it, i think their problem isn't being turnbased or action, its about proper marketing first and actual quality second.
If a game of Rebirth caliber were to release Day 1 on Steam, with proper marketing i'm nearly 100% sure it will have great numbers, they have all ingredients for success.
-Open World
-Action based so its more flashy
-Iconic cast of characters and has a legacy name behind it
-High quality all over the place
-Visually looks great
All they need to do is market it well and have it optimized for PC, then easy money printing.
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And spider-man wasn't?
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mayham2199
Member
Well sounds like that's what they need to tackle is their budgeting. Shouldn't budget so much for a franchise that isn't selling well enough. They keep saying this for all their games. Tomb Raider was getting the same response from them.
Jinxed
Gold Member
Nice try.
50 millions copies sold over 3 games, publishers would really like average games to sell that well
LordOcidax
Member
No Turn Based system = No buy
Senua
Gold Member
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Yeah dude. Deadlock, Valorant, CS2, LoL, etc are all huge flops. Has nothing to do with the quality of the game. It’s the customer’s fault.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I always use their metric of TR2013 selling under expectations and if any of their games can't sell 6 million in one month then it's a failure. So everything they put out are objectively failures by their own definitions.
Nice try.
RDR2 sold 80 milion and it's an absolute trash. Most people don't buy games they are buying stupid hype or brands attached to them.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
It picks up. Middle part is the slowest
It's very simple, if the game is good and was able to interest the consumer, they will buy it. If not, they don't buy it and it would be understandable if it showed bad results only on PC, but no, it also showed bad results on PS5, where sales of the series have always been very strong. It's just that Square Enix has abruptly changed course in recent years from, let's say, supporting its fan base, to reaching a larger audience and the American market. As a result, old fans of the series were left behind, and they were unable to attract new ones, and as a result, we have games that are hanging in vacuum. And yes, at the same time, they also spent a huge budget on all their games, which is why they are now in such pain and why they are now so eager.
Jinxed
Gold Member
And there we go, thanks for proving my point that you're just trolling. Have a nice day though!
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Senua
Gold Member
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
But XV is the best one.
It's such a weird and fantastic game.
I only played Remake, XV, 16, Rebirth and XV is my fav out of these and it's soundtrack is downright dangerous to play in a car lol
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Sales of Manor Lords have exceeded 2.5 million copies
Players continue to purchase Manor Lords. According to the publisher Hooded Horse, the medieval city-building game has been bought over 2.5 million times worldwide as of today.
app2top.com
Fbh
Member
I agree the game is average but Spider Man is also a bigger IP, and a bigger game that has sold multiple times more than any FF even on console.
Day 1 is important. Gamers have massive FOMO and Day 1 is the moment when hype and excitement is at the highest. There is a reason most games tend to make the most money and sell the most units during their launch window.
If everyone was just making rational purchasing decisions unaffected by hyped and FOMO we'd all just be waiting 6 months to buy a better version of the game after several patches and 40% off on some sale.
If you are releasing a game on another platform a year later the hype is no longer the same, opinions online will be more divided (this was specially true for FFXVI) and you'll be competing with newer releases that still have the hype and excitement and cost almost the same (like Space Marine 2 came out a week before and was just $10 more expensive).
Cyberpunkd
Gold Member
Way too logical for Square-Enix. I’m thinking they on purpose set unobtainable targets not to pay performance bonuses to employees.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
And that proves that quality of the game has nothing to do with it's sales lol.Sales of Manor Lords have exceeded 2.5 million copies
Players continue to purchase Manor Lords. According to the publisher Hooded Horse, the medieval city-building game has been bought over 2.5 million times worldwide as of today.
Not saying that Manor Lords is bad but it's straight up mid quality jank.
James Sawyer Ford
Gold Member
Excuses
Sea of thieves released years later on PlayStation and did big numbers
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Haven't played the game, so I can't comment on it's quality.
All I was saying is that games released exclusively on PC can sell a ton.
Different budgets lead to different expectations. Dragon's Dogma 2 wasn't really a a huge success either. And that probably played a part in the director/producer leaving Capcom.
Square Enix is simply out of touch with reality.
Final Fantasy is not a 10m seller IP like they would like it to be.
And it's their fault it isn't one with all the mediocrity they released for a decade that damaged the brand.
They're now finding out they're left with their 2.5-5m longtime fanbase and the rest of the market, especially younger generations, don't care about the IP.
They took ten years to deliver the game with no compromises, not half assed that the fanbase wanted with FF7 Rebirth.
They're also creating an identity problem with the constant deep, almost genre swapping changes to the formula they make to try to follow trends (FF16 was born with the mission to ride the success of Game of Thrones...) in the end they constantly lose groups of fans while hardly gaining others and the net effect is no growth.
Their solution to these issues with multiplatform is just a band-aid.
They need to step up the quality of their products but quite frankly I fear the opposite might happen, lower sales will lead to big budgets not being justified and even more cut corners.
mayham2199
Member
To each thier own I thought 15 was insanely bad.
AngelMuffin
Member
The game just isn’t that good tbh.
Wolzard
Member
Considering the cost of the port, I would say they were impactful. From the Insomniac leak, we have some costs:
PC Ports budgets (as of Feb 2023):
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart PC Port: $2.5 million
Spider-Man Remastered PC Port: $2.3 million
Spider-Man Miles Morales PC Port: $1.5 million
Spider-Man 2 PC Port: $4.6 million
Wolverine PC Port: $4.0 million
Spider-Man 3 PC Port: $7.0 million
Considering that Nixxes must be the one that spends the most budget, as its ports are more elaborate, the cost of other games may be lower.
God of War Ragnarok was ported by just 4 people at Jetpak Interactive.
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
People on consoles are more hungry for releases imo.
Hrk69
Gold Member
1. The source of those figures is less credible than a chocolate coin.
2. Releasing a port of a game more than a year later has consequences on sales compared to releasing it day one ALWAYS.
To that you add that it is a game with a pretty bad word of mouth, with a frankly poorly optimized port and released without marketing and during the release of other more interesting and newer games.... The die was cast.
Launching a game on day one allows you to capitalize on the initial hype and circumvent the risk of negative word-of-mouth.. In the case of FF you have the handicap that fans of the franchise have already decided to play on PS5 (or even buy this one) by having the exclusive. If it had been on more platforms day one, perhaps sales would have been distributed a little differently.
In the end, it remains that SE has realized that in the decision to make PS5 FF exclusive only Sony has benefited and hence the decision to change strategy. Maybe this change doesn't change things much either, but the normal thing when something doesn't work is to try other things and more when you see that rest of the publishers (SEGA, Capcom, KONAMI, BANDAI-NAMCO etc) have done really well.
2. Releasing a port of a game more than a year later has consequences on sales compared to releasing it day one ALWAYS.
To that you add that it is a game with a pretty bad word of mouth, with a frankly poorly optimized port and released without marketing and during the release of other more interesting and newer games.... The die was cast.
Launching a game on day one allows you to capitalize on the initial hype and circumvent the risk of negative word-of-mouth.. In the case of FF you have the handicap that fans of the franchise have already decided to play on PS5 (or even buy this one) by having the exclusive. If it had been on more platforms day one, perhaps sales would have been distributed a little differently.
In the end, it remains that SE has realized that in the decision to make PS5 FF exclusive only Sony has benefited and hence the decision to change strategy. Maybe this change doesn't change things much either, but the normal thing when something doesn't work is to try other things and more when you see that rest of the publishers (SEGA, Capcom, KONAMI, BANDAI-NAMCO etc) have done really well.
Sea of Thieves is a much bigger game, though. And Xbox actually bothered to market it
Not a fair comparison.
These late ports that miss out on the launch marketing spree...not really the best for games at all.
Desprado123
Member
First of all port is a garbage, second is that $70 price tag and third region lock
All 3 disaster recipe in one game and still sold over 250K is good result to me.
All 3 disaster recipe in one game and still sold over 250K is good result to me.
You realize that going multiplatform is a good way for publishers to try to reach out to new generations of players, and additional player base?
Not the only way, of course. Famous examples include the God of War reboot that brought in a whole new fanbase for Kratos. But not everyone can pull that off.
Square should be copying what Capcom does.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Killjoy-NL
Member
They are profitable, yes. It's easy money.
In that light, I agree it's impactful.
For growing the business though, it isn't. Numbers aren't that big.
And it seems overall PC game sales are dropping, afaik.
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