| johnsobas said: Japan and the west are a different market with different trends, don't directly compare the 2. I think most the people here know that. I don't know what you're trying to argue, they are limiting sales for 1 reasons but sales are rising for other reasons. Bottom line is the sales have been higher for the first game on the system. |
By the way, thanks for having a rational discussion. I don't think you're completely wrong to point to the numbers of past Final Fantasy games. I also think you're right that the Final Fantasy games, as a big name, are less affected by a small console userbase than most games. However, you're suggesting that if the ratios between userbase and sales don't directly correlate between past Final Fantasy games, they can have absolutely nothing to do with future Final Fantasy games. Your theory totally excludes every other factor that could have affected the sales of those past FF games, factors like the overall popularity of the series, which could be changing over time, or the individual popularity of each game.
And one major factor affects FFXIII, unlike any other Final Fantasy every released, and makes comparisons to past FFs even more flawed: It is the first Final Fantasy to be released on a console which clearly will never be in first place, and has lost significant userbase to the competition.
Basically, I think you're stating things in an exaggerated way. The way you're saying it (to my ears anyway) is: Userbase can have no limiting effect on the sales of a Final Fantasy game. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Otherwise you seem to be stating an extreme that seems, by your own admission, impossible. Fewer PS3s owned means at least a slight reduction in potential buyers of FFXIII. If the PS3 had a userbase of ten people, it would obviously affect the sales of FFXIII. With a userbase of four million, the affects are less, but they are still going to be there. Especially when you're talking about a game that is expected to sell around two million eventually, and have one of the highest attach rates of all time, for any game. I would be shocked if Square Enix isn't just as aware of this in the Japanese market as they are everywhere else.
