Nier was outsourced as far as I know, Last Remnant was an UE3 game and DQX is a Wii game.
I didn't know about NieR, the other two can be considered full console games and I don't understand what has to do with LR the fact that it runs on UE3. It was a bad game (with good points of course) that sold shit, like all the other HD games Square Enix produced in Japan during this generation, outsourced or not. In the mean time two titles have been successfull and essential to S-E to survive: XIII and XIII-2. Not FFXIV, for now not Versus, no Type-0, Kingdom Hearts or any other brand.
Wada actually referred the to quality of recent FF titles being lacking outside of the FFVII comment as far as I remember. Toriyama himself acknowledged it when he says that he's sad that Wada thinks so because Toriyama personally thinks the recent titles were of great quality.
Again, like I told you already, for me that's just PR talk to say that the next FF is going to be the best FF evah. Same thing Nintendo does when refers to OOT as the best in the series.
6.5 mil is great, but the drop-off from 6.5 to 2 mil is huge.
This is not a race in which the one that sells the most wins. This has all to do with profits, and XIII-2 generated plenty of profits apparently for them. It has been developed in a little less than one year and half, recycling the shit out of XIII, making use of DLCs (that weekly were the top sellers on PSN). Costed way less than XIII, way more less than Versus and XIV and managed to be a key title in their earnings because of this. Something XIV didn't achieve and Versus will have problems achieving. We don't know how much they got with XIII, but I wouldn't be surprised if XIII-2 to them made the same profits without even selling as much, considering the short development time, the recycle of assets ect.
The reason they're willing to make more XIII games is proof already that XIII is a key-title to their present and future success and part of a new found strategy. Plus, we really don't know how much the XIII franchise is damaging the entire IP, we will find an answer when XV will be released one day.
Again, I invite people to see XIII-2 as a replacement for minor-spin offs. In my opinion S-E just realized that developing sequels or prequels to main entries is more successfull than continuing to develop series like Crystal Chronicles or Tactics, thus the reason why they don't announce anymore that many minor spin-offs like few years ago and decided instead to focus on XIII-2 and XIII-3. This is something we should get used to because I'm pretty confident in saying that from now every main entry in this series will be developed as a multiple-episode entry. This is essential to the strenghtning of Final Fantasy like Wada predicted few years ago. Less minor title, more main entries. Better critical reception, better fans' reactions, better sales. It's a winning situation to them, it's a better situation for players.
Instead of Crystal Bearers I got XIII-2. I'm happy this way.
We're talking about hurting the franchise here, which is something Wada explicitly said recent titles have hurt the FF brand and that is why SE is putting so much money into FFXIV to repair the brand.
They're trying to repair FFXIV not to save the name of Final Fantasy (it's an mmorpg a minority of fans wanted or played), that's just again PR bullshit, they're doing it because FFXI have been essential to them regarding profits, and all the investments went into FFXIV have been 'till now wasted, and they don't have a back-up plan to develop another MMORPG in the next few years. Essentially, Square Enix wants a profitable MMORPG on the market and instead of starting anew the development of a new title in the genre, they decided to repair FFXIV. Not for the good name of FF (again, it's a title most of the fans never gave a fuck about, nor they'll look into it when repaired) but because they want money. FFXI have been the most profitable FF ever, so it sounds just natural for them to try to make some more money out of its sequel.
