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Square Enix: FFXV shipments + digital sales top 5 million worldwide

Zedark

Member
It's worth noting that the digital sales is included in this number. Recent AAA games had average of 30% of their sales as digital, so expect a large percentage of the 5 millions to be actual digital sales.

Isn't that 30% number only for the US market? I thought digital was smaller in eg europe and japan.
 

bigol

Member
I don't know how many they need to sell to make a profit, but that's definitely a good number. Obviously in Japan it will see a decline compared to FF XIII: Japan console games don't sell nearly as much as they did in 2009.
 
So I guess that so-called decline in popularity for the franchise was a myth then? People have been saying for years now that Final Fantasy isn't the name it once was, but if XV can pull in impressive numbers like this then I'd say it's still an IP that's very much flourishing.

Of course, Remake will blow XV out of the water.

It's about lifetime sales, but FF has had a gentle downwards trend. VII was about 10 million, VIII about 8m, IX only over 5m, X back up to around 8m (before remaster sales), XII down to about 6m, XIII around 6m again (bolstered later somewhat higher by PC). These numbers aren't exact and don't always include the latest rerelease (FF7 passed 11m after the Steam & PS4 releases), but they're close enough. So there has been a general downward decline, but the series seems to be settling around the 6m mark - which is nothing to sniff at. It's a far cry from the heady days of 7 and 8, but they're good sales.

The big thing is that SE's ambition has always been to build another FF7 moment - they want another 10m seller, a game that they can say sold like COD, Skyrim, Bioshock or The Witcher - all 10m+ sellers. That's their big goal, and every time they swing and don't hit it people kick off the doom and gloom, but these games do sell well. However, their ambitions for something even larger do mean that these games probably are more expensive to make than other games that shift similar numbers. Eventually they're going to either have to be successful there or recalibrate how they make FF and make it with a 6-7m audience in mind rather than a 10m+ audience.

The other big thing that's caused this discourse is that the FF13 sequels did exceptionally poorly (each sold half of its predecessor), but I think that gave a false impression - people aren't as interested in sequels, and the trend there would plainly not be continued with 15.

ANYWAY: FF sells well! Square would like it to sell better, like the heyday. In the end I think 15 will probably settle with very similar numbers to 13, which will make them money but not be considered what they wanted. It's a great game though.
 
Good, I hope the game does well in the long run.
It's flawed for sure but you don't see AAA games that unique and creative very often. Between this, XIV, the Tomb Raider reboot, Hitman, Setsuna and the DQ7 remake among others, Square has been a very solid publisher in the last few years, they deserve a big success.
 
Lets be honest here.When companies say x number was sold most people think they are actual sales to consumers.Their PR knows this.

Well it's not their fault if people are stupid. This is still the most basic game sales PR you get and there is nothing dodgy in it.
 

LordKano

Member
This isn't a real number? I mean it's straight from the horse's mouth. You can't get more "real" than that.

You can try to hide a decline or to reach a milestone by boosting the shipment. GungHo did that with Puzzle & Dragons in Japan, and Level 5 too with Yokai 3. And Square is certainly not afraid of overshipping, if you look at their history.

By real I meant sold to consumers, the numbers that matter.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I don't know how many they need to sell to make a profit, but that's definitely a good number. Obviously in Japan it will see a decline compared to FF XIII: Japan console games don't sell nearly as much as they did in 2009.

The highest selling PS4 game in Japan is still under a million sold, so this is pretty big evidence for that. It could also mean a lack of games that interest gamers in Japan as well. FF XV will at least becom the best selling PS4 game, as that number sits somewhere around 500k.
 

marmoka

Banned
And I thought this game wouldn't sell much, and bomb.

Glad to know I was wrong. Congratulations for your great work SE!!
 

sublimit

Banned
Well it's not their fault if people are stupid. This is still the most basic game sales PR you get and there is nothing dodgy in it.

They could easily state it more clearly but they like to "blur the waters" because it suits their marketing needs.
 

LowParry

Member
Yeah, I just read that up. I wonder how much they actually need to sell then.

5 million seems like a good number. Ugh sales can bring out some ugly in people. Just keep is nice. I think this is a good sign of Final Fantasy being, instead of a shit product, a good one. 14 helped, along with their cell phone games but this I think will give people to get excited for the franchise again.

We still got FF7R to look forward to. I think that's a more scary concept of what it could do to the brand. Unless we start hearing about 16 in the next year. We'll see.
 

Boke1879

Member
Shipped =/= sold. Any % of that 5 million figure could be warming up Japanese shelves right now.

Every company does this. The game has only been official released for a couple of days. You're better off waiting for media create, the U.K. Numbers , and NPD In January for a better picture
 

noshten

Member
It only matters with Final Fantasy apperently. You could make the case for pokemon sales declining in Japan but more people are emotionally invested with ff

Yes it matters with Final Fantasy and other console games because Final Fantasy will likely launch at around 600k compared to 1.5 million. Basically if you combine the top three selling games for the PS4 in Japan you won't even reach Splatoon's total LTD. Simply put even though people are buying a PS4 in Japan at the same rate as PS3... actual game sales are way down - this either means they aren't using it or there isn't really a single IP on the PS4 that appeals to Japan.

Also Pokemon "decline" in Japan is something you might want to inform yourself about because it's not quite as pronounced as selling 1/3 of your prior game.
 

Zedark

Member
Yeah, I just read that up. I wonder how much they actually need to sell then.

probably less than many people expect it to. It has had at least 5 years of its 10 year ride with a skeleton crew in preproduction, so that hardly took a lot of money. So, ij the worst case they would have had to fundamentele 5 years of full dev. And it is probably is even less, as I can't imagine things suddenly kicken into full gear the moment Tabata came, as hé would have to do some preproduction as well ti figure out how to work the property.
 

Boke1879

Member
I'll just say this before the thread takes a downturn. Good Job SE. Hopefully the game continues to sell well. I'm having a damn good time with it.
 
This isn't a real number? I mean it's straight from the horse's mouth. You can't get more "real" than that.

It's not a "real" number in the sense that it represents only how many copies Square Enix have shipped to stores - not how many copies consumers have actually bought. We're not getting reliable retail estimates until the next NPD/PAL charts/MC.

GAF is usually quick to point out this inaccuracy, and this thread isn't any different.
 
It was bound to be because it was a simultaneous worldwide launch, whereas every other entry had its Western launch staggered. FF13 had three months between, and that still made it the fastest ever at the time after the Western version launched.

Or basically: Yes, FF15 in all regions (including an all-new, expanding market in China) outsold FF13 in one region in their first weeks. That much is obvious.

The real question is: if you added together Japan Week 1 and ROW week 1 for FF13 - just week one and nothing else and put that against FF15 week one worldwide - which would win? We'll probably never know that, but aye. 15 was always gonna break this record unless something went drastically wrong.

I really hope it sells a lot of these 5 million, though! This is a really promising start.
Final Fantasy XV was delayed in China by a week so I don't think this counts number from China.
 

ethomaz

Banned
FFXIII for reference.

- 1.8m shipped for Japan only at launch
- Over 5m shipped WW for US launch

These are the SE released PRs.
 

kswiston

Member
It's not a "real" number in the sense that it represents only how many copies Square Enix have shipped to stores - not how many copies consumers have actually bought. We're not getting reliable retail estimates until the next NPD/PAL charts/MC.

GAF is usually quick to point out this inaccuracy, and this thread isn't any different.

GAF is quick to point out this innaccuracy for games they dont like. Almost all of the numbers we get from publishers are shipped + digital, unless the report is in conjunction with an NPD release or something.

Anyhow: I think that FFXIII initially had 6M in shipments after the western release, eventually crawling to 6.6M a couple years later. Given that Japan will likely be down 1M copies, the western sales are about the same.

The holidays should help FFXV's sell-through in the west a bit though.
 
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