https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-16-sales-did-not-meet-high-expectations-says-square-enix-president
Sales of Final Fantasy 16 did not meet Square Enix's high expectations, said president Takashi Kiryu. Last week the com…
Sales of Final Fantasy 16 did not meet Square Enix's high expectations, said president Takashi Kiryu. Last week the com…
I'm interested in playing this but I don't own a PS5 and I'm not buying a whole console for one game. They would have gotten a day 1 sale out of me if they released it on PC.
Knowing them, they'll probably do it. It'll just take a year or so.
Edit: that said, they should've done it to start with, and not kept it off of X-box. They're killing their brand and mindshare here.
Originally, they did plan to release it on PS5 and PC. My guess is Sony made a timed exclusivity deal with them, which Sony had done with companies before. SE shout themselves in the foot by taking it.
Also only releasing on one console is a relict of the past and misses out on so many sales.
We have the technology to compile to every current gen console + pc with the right engines. Square should release their games for all consoles at once.
But then how will Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo ensure you have to buy their console to play their IPs?
Actual Good Hardware for a reasonable price. Or gimmick control schemes like the ps vita, Wii (U) or occasionally the Switch. I loved the first "The World Ends With You" on the NDS, tried emulating it, but the control scheme without a touch screen and the physical buttons are so weird, I bought a 3DS to relive that masterpiece since my DS Lite died.
For Series X sure. Given it performance issues on PS5 getting it to run on the Series S might have been pretty challenging.
And they're not allowed to release it unless on the X if didn't run on the S. See: Baulder's Gate 3
While it’s a little more complicated than just compiling the code for multiple platforms, I do agree that the effort would have been worth it
It pretty much is, but if you like DMC then you’d probably enjoy this combat too. The plot is.. extremely FF. For better or worse.
FF games have been crap since 10. I bought 15 on discount and was completely disappointed at how bland and lifeless the entire experience was. They have taken the series too far into MMO land, and need to go back to focusing on a good story with good characters, rather than a 'open world' with fancy graphics and lifeless characters.
13 was also a incomprehensible joke of a story, which they padded out to become even more absurd with the sequels.
"nooooooo turn-based combat is outdated and a limitation of old hardware, players don't want it"
meanwhile, Baldur's Gate 3...
Yeah it makes no sense. "Let's ditch turn-based combat for and even more niche genre, character action! Surely this will make us more money, right?"
A Spinoff CRPG Final Fantasy game would actually be really interesting, and a funny way to go full circle with how much the original FF1 drew from the likes of DnD.
It's interesting you say that because this entry isn't particularly "open world". It's actually fairly linear with a focus on the story and characters.
The MMO comparison is still fair though because the zones are very reminiscent of FF14. They all connect to each other and can be re-visited, but you're not really free roaming a giant open world.
Side quests are also 14-like and I don't mean that as a compliment. Go to A to talk to B. Go to C to talk to D. That can mostly be skipped though.
looks at the director of FFXIV. Looks at the director of FFXVI
Hmm... no idea why they give vibes of each other...
Well, obviously - but they're different games and not everything is going to be 1:1 or feel the same.
I was just pointing out what I've felt to be the strongest parallels vs how it's ALSO managed to move in the opposite direction of many "MMO-ification" complaints of the franchise.
I think the main issue is that it's very clear that Yoshi-P's passion is FFXIV. At least that was the vibe I got when I played XVI.
Everything seemed to be a little nod to things from XVI.
They have taken the series too far into MMO land, and need to go back to focusing on a good story
You say that as though FF14 doesn't have one of the best stories of modern Final Fantasy games.
You're not wrong, but a lot of people aren't willing to invest the subscription fee and the hundreds of hours they'd need to see that for themselves. And even as someone who's all caught up on 14, I honestly can't blame them. Time is precious, and it's asking for a lot.
I just dont want mmo like fetch quest in my single player AAA, my expectations is different in both. And the quality difference is too large between main battle and down time.
The Final Fantasy series was at its best when limitations on hardware power and translation quality meant that the games mostly happened in your imagination. Ever since things advanced to the point where we could actually see what the designers intended, they've been crap.
Given the kind of popularity Final Fantasy had in its glory days, and the “return to form” they were aiming for, this might not even be far from the mark.
The PS1 also sold the N64 3:1, But FF7, the highest selling FF game, only sold about 9m to OoT’s 7m. Relative to console sales, oot thrashed final fantasy 7. Of course, it helps that they cranked these games out way faster than Zelda back then.
The current situation is similar, except the switch is wildly more prevalent than the PS5. There is almost 1 TotK sold for every 6 switch units, which is utterly insane when you consider how many ignored/lost/broken units are probably out there. By contrast, there is about 1 FF16 for every 10 PS5 units out there.
These are the numbers I found for 5th and 6th gen games:
FFVII: 10.0
FFVIII: 8.6
FFX: 8.5
Ocarina of Time: 7.60
Wind Waker: 6.79
Majora's Mask: 6.82
FFIX: 5.5
FFX-2: 5.4
Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages: 3.99
Minish Cap: 1.76
So maybe "a lot" is an overstatement, but they did generally sell more. You have a point regarding sales-per-console, but also remember PS1 had over 1900 games to N64s 388. That's way more competition for third party FF games to get sales. Many people that buy Sony consoles don't even look twice at JRPGs, whereas most people that buy Nintendo consoles know day one they are going to get the latest Mario and Zelda.
sure, but the series and Square are by far very different than they were in it's heyday. Square has really been racking its players over the coals with shitty tactics lately and has signaled pretty loud and clear that they don't care about games at all and are just trying to get money out of you (I mean all major companies are like that, the others are just better at it and shut up about it) I said Tears of the Kingdom because it's the current high selling game, that's what they wanted this game to be and I honestly don't know why you'd even hope for something like that when handling business the way they do. (as people have mentioned they'd play it but do not have the system.)
No I agree. The fact that Final Fantasy used to outsell Zelda and now sells 1/3rd of it should speak volumes about how Square has handled the franchise. Gaming has only gotten bigger since the late 90s.
I personally just don’t buy Squeenix software any longer. They’ve abandoned too many titles (mostly on mobile, but elsewhere too) and I just don’t feel good about giving them money. Last one I purchased was FF14 for the PC (which is one of the best MMOs I’ve played).
That’s just my take on things. If it happens to show up on Epic for free or Game Pass (unlikely on both, I know), then sure I’ll grab it to try.
It's a surprise to no one that Square is disappointed in sales numbers. As the article says near the end they are infamous for being disappointed with not meeting very unrealistic targets. I don't own a PS5 to play it on, they haven't been in stock locally consistently. But from everything I've seen about the game, it's a middling to good game. So middling to good sales numbers should make them happy. And from what I can tell the numbers say that it's selling better than that.
honestly, i started the demo, and while the gameplay wasn't bad, the characters and story didn't grab me at all, and i lost interest almost immediately. maybe i'll snag it in a year or two, after the GOTY, during a sale
There are only two things certain in life: Death, and game sales not living up to Square-Enix’s expectations.
That’s what Square gets for failing to read the room. Nobody wants a DMC-like. If they had made it a souls-like people would love it. Also, this exclusivity bullshit makes you irrelevant.
No, it should've been a final fantasy-like.
Soulslike games cater to an incredibly specific audience and I guarantee it would've done worse if it was.