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Media Create Sales: Week 50, 2011 (Dec 12 - Dec 18)

Kazerei

Banned
No surprise that FFXIII-2 sales are below Tales game after SE tried to please MS so much... I am not a fan but i do believe that announcing exclusive for PS3 n then back tracking and delaying PS3 release for XBOX release and things like that accumulated n made a sizable impact on poor sale performance..... e.g. MGS 4 even on a smaller install base sold almost similar to previous releases of MGS...

Also SE's releasing just too many games on XBOX in japan surely put them out of mind of the gamers which were mostly on Wii or PS3. although they might have gained a bit of money but the lost fanbase is going to hurt them much much more

So what you're saying is, Square just shot themselves in the foot? And that the Japanese public is not going to want to purchase any of Square's games? All because FFXIII confirmed for Xbox 360?
 

Sadist

Member
No surprise that FFXIII-2 sales are below Tales game after SE tried to please MS so much... I am not a fan but i do believe that announcing exclusive for PS3 n then back tracking and delaying PS3 release for XBOX release and things like that accumulated n made a sizable impact on poor sale performance..... e.g. MGS 4 even on a smaller install base sold almost similar to previous releases of MGS...

Also SE's releasing just too many games on XBOX in japan surely put them out of mind of the gamers which were mostly on Wii or PS3. although they might have gained a bit of money but the lost fanbase is going to hurt them much much more
You can't honestly believe that

Not a fan, but an expert I see
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
I'm still gonna get a Vita, and 13-2, and Shinobido 2 damnit!! Sales don't mean anything to me because the games being talked about already exist! So even if they perform badly, it doesn't mean I can't play them! Yay!!
 
Watch Square Enix rename Final Fantasy Versus XIII to FF Versus or to FF XV, as long FFXIII isn't in the title.
Final Fantasy: Magic Combat
Final Fantasy: Modern Magic
Final Fantasy: Resurrection
Final Fantasy: Reckoning
Final Fantasy: Dark Warriors
Heroes of Final Fantasy
New! Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Returns

I'm only half-joking here. Don't rename it XV, but definitely drop the XIII, and probably the Versus part too. The subtitle doesn't have to make sense in terms of the story, but it has to sound somewhat palatable to Western audiences (however generic these subtitles may sound to GAFers). No more Latin titles either. Get Nolan North to voice Noctis.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
So what you're saying is, Square just shot themselves in the foot? And that the Japanese public is not going to want to purchase any of Square's games? All because FFXIII confirmed for Xbox 360?

He's right. They should've just cancelled it. Now they'll kiss their business goodbye.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
If anything Square will HAVE to do the FF7 remake now to regain some finances. It's finally coming true guys! Guys! Guys?
 
Tales of Xillia just shot itself in the foot. The temerity on display--the sheer audacity to outdo the first week of finest work to be graced with the name Final Fantasy since 1997. Unbelievable.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Kags, you might want to note that the total (LTD) numbers there seem to be excluding Ultimate Hits / budget rereleases. This would help some more than others. Because SE is pretty aggression at re-releasing I think it's worth incorporating those figures. XIII-2 isn't likely to get as much of a boost from those rereleases as, say, X did because it's releasing much later in the generation.

The chart is from 2ch.

She's just reposting it for us.

But yeah, that's quite a notable part of it.
 
No surprise that FFXIII-2 sales are below Tales game after SE tried to please MS so much... I am not a fan but i do believe that announcing exclusive for PS3 n then back tracking and delaying PS3 release for XBOX release and things like that accumulated n made a sizable impact on poor sale performance..... e.g. MGS 4 even on a smaller install base sold almost similar to previous releases of MGS...

Also SE's releasing just too many games on XBOX in japan surely put them out of mind of the gamers which were mostly on Wii or PS3. although they might have gained a bit of money but the lost fanbase is going to hurt them much much more

You cant believe this deep down. because SE embraced the xbox 360, PS3 FF fans got into a huge strop and decided to boycott!

sounds rather childish.
 

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Final Fantasy: Magic Combat
Final Fantasy: Modern Magic
Final Fantasy: Resurrection
Final Fantasy: Reckoning
Final Fantasy: Dark Warriors
Heroes of Final Fantasy
New! Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Returns

I'm only half-joking here. Don't rename it XV, but definitely drop the XIII, and probably the Versus part too. The subtitle doesn't have to make sense in terms of the story, but it has to sound somewhat palatable to Western audiences (however generic these subtitles may sound to GAFers). No more Latin titles either. Get Nolan North to voice Noctis.

Wouldn't that be absolutely hilarious if they dropped FF altogether, and just called it "Kingdom Hearts Future"?
 
Final Fantasy really does need some time out of the spotlight, a chance for the creative teams to reconnect with what made the series so successful in the first place and to try and see how that core appeal can be made to work for a modern audience. That doesn't necessarily mean handing the series over to a Western team - in fact, that's the worst idea I've seen suggested - or for them to pander to current trends, but it does mean tearing the whole thing apart to try and really understand what makes it *work* and then focusing on that, rather than ever-more-arcane (niche?) spin-offs and "shared universes" for multiple titles.

Unfortunately, there's no indication that anyone in a position of authority at SE is prepared to take this "downtime" so I'm guessing we can look forward to seeing the series disappear up its own arse over the next few years, with a shrinking-but-dedicated audience cheering it all the way...

EDIT:

...and no, renaming or spin-off titles just won't work.

I remember the build-up to FFVI, FFVII and FFVIII, and the excitement was because these were "event" games. They weren't (by and large) diluted by spin-offs set in the same "universe", or interspersed with half-a-dozen remakes, or any of the other shite that seems to plague modern FF. What SE need to recapture is the feeling that "Final Fantasy" is an event and a spectacle, and not just a brand slapped on a dozen barely-related games.
 

guek

Banned
whoohoo, 3DS numbers. I'm anxious to see the December NPDs now.

As for Vita, it beat the PSP's launch numbers, but PSP was supply constrained and sold out, iirc. It came close to 3DS launch numbers but still fell short, and during a much bigger shopping season to boot. Next week's numbers will be really telling.

3DS software looks great at the moment, but I weep for the fall of zelda :-( Nintendo was probably going to go back a more realistic, western-influenced art style anyway since they have a history of alternating between gritty and more colorful. I'm going to predict now that Wii-U Zelda will break 1 mil in its first week in japan. You heard it here first! Muahaha!
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I keep thinking jeremy1456 is Revenant Kioku.

Final Fantasy: Magic Combat
Final Fantasy: Modern Magic
Final Fantasy: Resurrection
Final Fantasy: Reckoning
Final Fantasy: Dark Warriors
Heroes of Final Fantasy
New! Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Returns

I'm only half-joking here. Don't rename it XV, but definitely drop the XIII, and probably the Versus part too. The subtitle doesn't have to make sense in terms of the story, but it has to sound somewhat palatable to Western audiences (however generic these subtitles may sound to GAFers). No more Latin titles either. Get Nolan North to voice Noctis.
This is what got them into this mess in the first place. :p
 

Dragon

Banned
I know they're introducing some music games having to do with Final Fantasy but I'd really like to see new IPs period. Don't do what they did this gen and put Last Remnant on an engine that they're not going to use going forward. Use the new IPs to set up these engines and crank out FF with them.

The other trap they've fallen into is aesthetic over gameplay. None of the PS1+ FF's have GREAT gameplay but as it's been said many times 13 took the cake for difficulty spikes and horribly long tutorial sections.
 
I'm inclined to think that the Monster Hunter franchise has officially surpassed Final Fantasy in Japan. Not bad for a franchise that has only been around for 1 generation.
 

Erethian

Member
?
What did they do wrong with this game? Little Battlers did solid numbers and they're promoting this game with a movie. Unless I'm missing something I don't see what they could've done to make this game do better.

It's a general thing. Level 5 did a good job of taking a solid strategy (games with lots of cross media exposure) and hammering it to death.

They're like the Activision of the Japanese industry, and their IPs are the music/rhythm genre. The only saving grace is that they still do well overseas, or at least in Europe.
 

diddles

Banned
final fantasy is just dying. things die. it's been around a really long time, it used to be really popular, but do you really think it will be around forever? 500k isn't bad for a dying franchise, but it will probably only get worse as they try to keep it alive.
 
For Versus they really should drop the XIII part .
Also if XIII-2 really did end on a cliffhanger it shows SE have no fucking idea what to do since most people did not want XIII-2 to begin with .

Still Versus should be out long time ago and having people do XIII -2 and fixing XIV making it take even longer to come out have me piss off.
 

Gravijah

Member
For Versus they really should drop the XXIII part .
Also if XXIII-2 really did end on a cliffhanger it shows SE have no fucking idea what to do since most people did not want XXIII-2 to begin with .

Still Versus should be out long time ago and having people do XXIII -2 and fixing XXIV making it take even longer to come out have me piss off.

there's only one x
 
I don't know about you, but I'd consider sub 600k sales for a brand new mainline FF game to be a bomb of epic proportions! (re-used assets or otherwise)

cr_04009_01_v6.jpg


Now THIS is an apocalyptic scenario! Wada could well be on that ejector seat.

It's a good thing that they have Eidos to prop them up, because they'd be well and truly fucked if they didn't have them!

And DQX could well mark the end of that franchise too. What a generation! Just a couple of years back, whodathunk that Tales would end up being bigger than Final Fantasy?!

Vita is off to a decent start, but the software numbers aren't that great (UC3's success is clearly rubbing off of UCGA though)

While the big 3 on 3DS are all rocketing off to 1 million +, Inazuma Go is off to a miserable start (Level 5's luck running out indeed!) and while it's a shame to see 3DS fall short of the DS' 2005 record, it's still an amazing performance.

The biggest surprise here though is Kirby Returns to Dreamland. What an increase! Xmas bump in full effect here!
 

Takao

Banned
Inazuma Eleven actually did worse than I expected, and I did not expect great things from that title.

Level-5's emulating other companies and their attempts at success with the cross media launches, but why in the world did they think they could be immune to decline if they did annual sequels?
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
cr_04009_01_v6.jpg


Now THIS is an apocalyptic scenario! Wada could well be on that ejector seat.

It's a good thing that they have Eidos to prop them up, because they'd be well and truly fucked if they didn't have them!

And DQX could well mark the end of that franchise too. What a generation! Just a couple of years back, whodathunk that Tales would end up being bigger than Final Fantasy?!

Vita is off to a decent start, but the software numbers aren't that great (UC3's success is clearly rubbing off of UCGA though)

While the big 3 on 3DS are all rocketing off to 1 million +, Inazuma Go is off to a miserable start (Level 5's luck running out indeed!) and while it's a shame to see 3DS fall short of the DS' 2005 record, it's still an amazing performance.

DQX won't absolutely mark the end of the DQ franchise, as well as FFXI didn't bring the death of FF one. Now, if you were talking about a DQ badly received as FFXIII, not online, well...
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
FF11 must have done pretty well considering they just shut it down recently right?

IIRC, due to all the paid content, the expansions, it has been the most profitable FF for them.
 

Hero

Member
MC threads are big again, wow.

PSV seems to have done okay performance wise but I suppose the real factor will be the post-holiday sales to see if it has staying power.

Final Fantasy brand is absolutely fucked though. XIII-2 doesn't seem like it'll break a million when all is said and done and that's pretty sad. At this point I think Versus should just be cancelled because there's no way it will even perform at the XIII-2 level and if anything it'll just damage the FF brand even further.

I think at this point the best bet for Square-Enix is to just give the FF brand some breathing room. I think there's way too much saturation the past few years. XIII, Dissidia, Type 0, XIV, XIII-2, Versus, the Chronicles games, FFIV Compilation and then you have all the old games ported to iOS/PSN/Wii. It's just way too much crap out there and the quality is all over the place. Back in the day a Final Fantasy game was something special akin to Dragon Quest or Mario but now it just seems to be another release.
 
Now THIS is an apocalyptic scenario! Wada could well be on that ejector seat.

It's a good thing that they have Eidos to prop them up, because they'd be well and truly fucked if they didn't have them!

And DQX could well mark the end of that franchise too. What a generation! Just a couple of years back, whodathunk that Tales would end up being bigger than Final Fantasy?!

Even if DQX does not do good it should not kill DQ they could always do another offline one for 3DS.
FF is the real problem 1 bad main line game , a sequel no one wanted and a mess up online RPG all in 3 years time.
 
I keep thinking jeremy1456 is Revenant Kioku.

Me too.

Seriously serious though, Versus is the one title that seems to have everyone excited, even on the press. I think rebranding it to FFXV is the smartest thing Squeenix could do.

No. This is an even dumber theory now than it was before.

Versus has a ton of stuff stacked against it. It is guaranteed to sell less well than what we think of as the "norm" for "mainline FF" for reasons that Nirolak laid out earlier. It is also, at this stage, very unlikely to ship in a polished, well-regarded state.

If they rename Versus to XV (rather than just dropping the XIII, which is a wise move at this stage) they're just admitting complete failure: that, faced with two consecutive disasters (in XIV and XIII-2) the best they can do is take a vaporware title that can't show off game footage five years after its reveal and try to pass it off as a real FF. It's like sending out a press release that just says "guess what, we gave up!"
 
I think the big news here, rather than the Vita stuff which did 'ok to pretty good' based on how you look at it, is XIII-2. For any other franchise those numbers are damn good, but as a numbered FF? Not so much.

The only game to compare to is X-2, and that sold waaaaay more. Granted, X is super well loved here in Japan which is pretty much the opposite of XIII.

I think Type-0 made a lot of great (and a few silly) changes that the franchise could use, for sure. It felt fresh and new.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
I will be really surprised if Vita sells over 200k next week. I'm thinking more of 150k + -.


And DQX could well mark the end of that franchise too. What a generation! Just a couple of years back, whodathunk that Tales would end up being bigger than Final Fantasy?!
I think that XIII-2 will beat Tales of Xillia easily when it comes to LTD, so FF is still bigger. But yeah, much unpredictable stuff have happened this generation indeed.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
the good thing about FF13's situation is that they're going to have to REALLY nail FF15.

The back lash is against FF13, not the series.

Congrats to Capcom and Nintendo, sales sales SALES! :)
 

Alrus

Member
So what's the possiblity of the Vita doing less than 200k in next week's chart and the 3DS over 400k?

It's possible. The 3DS is already close and next week is usually the biggest week for sales.

As for the Vita, it depends if there's really shortages of the Wi-Fi version and if people really wanted that one and not the 3G version. I think sales will go down but I'm not sure by how much.
 
I think that XIII-2 will beat Tales of Xillia easily when it comes to LTD, so FF is still bigger. But yeah, much unpredictable stuff have happened this generation indeed.

What are the sales numbers for Xillia so far ?

EDIT i don't think Vita going to do more than 200k next week maybe 100k if they lucky .
Seems people want the WiFi model and Sony ship more 3G ones.
 

Erethian

Member
Inazuma Eleven actually did worse than I expected, and I did not expect great things from that title.

Level-5's emulating other companies and their attempts at success with the cross media launches, but why in the world did they think they could be immune to decline if they did annual sequels?

It's possible they thought their would be decline but decided to wring the blood from that stone anyway.

Though the problem is when their new cross media attempts fail to even get off the ground.
 

duckroll

Member
Looks like I was totally wrong. FFXIII-2 total mega bomba. I guess S-E should shut the entire series down and I should just play other games. Oh well.
 
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