gergroy said:
txrattlesnake said:
gergroy said:
txrattlesnake said:
gergroy said:
txrattlesnake said:
TheTruthHurts! said:
Honestly, sales would probably be almost identical to what they are now. I am confidient that FFXIII exclusive and GTAIV dlc would'nt have made a 5mil + difference considering the PS3's overpriced start.
Oh, and there is no way the PS3 would even be close to striking distance of the Wii so we can scratch that one off the list. |
The Wii's only at a little over 60 million. I really don't think it's beyond possibility that the PS3 would be at 50 million now if they had had exclusive FFXIII worldwide Christmas 2008 and exclusive FF Versus XIII worldwide Christmas 2009.
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it would sell an additional 20 million units based on one game? So at least double the amount of ps3's as people that would have bought the game? That is some good logic there txrattlesnake :) Also, I don't think going multiplat would have affected development by 2 years, and outside of Japan FFXIII influence on moving systems is pretty limited.
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It would have been based on more than one game. People knowing that it was getting dlc for GTA IV would have moved more systems when GTA IV was released. We know that MGS 4 moved systems and FFXIII would have moved many more than that. Then what the PS3 was lacking Holiday '08, even though most critics agreed that they had the best games of that holiday sales season was a powerful system seller. FFXIII like FFVII and FFX would have provided that boost.
With the growing install base, MH3 and other games probably would have come to the PS3 too. And FF Versus XIII Christmas '09 would have continued the momentum. They probably would have hurried up the release of GT to keep it going as well.
I believe the decision to put XIII on the 360 wasn't made until way past the midpoint of FFXIII's development, so, I do think that delayed the game's release at least one year. And it makes since to think so imho as FFXIII should have been out Christmas '08, Versus XIII in '09, and XIV holiday 2010.
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I don't think the GTA IV DLC really mattered to the consumer as the sell rate seemed to be pretty evenly split based on marketshare. You have to remember that GTA was only a timed exclusive on the ps2 so the fanbase was already there on the xbox and then a lot of ps2 owners switched consoles this gen in NA.
FFXIII and Versus XIII would NOT be done 2 years earlier because they went multiplat. They could have made the game on the ps3 and then ported it to the 360 (like they did). That would only increase development time for a studio as large as square enix for 4 or 5 months at best. Also, Versus XIII is still ps3 exclusive so if it was going to come out in holiday 2009 it would be out already.
The reason MGS4 moved units so well is because it reintroduced a backwards compatible 80 gig model that was in high demand and had been cleared off shelves for MONTHS. While MGS4 is a great game and definetly moved systems, that increase was more than just the game, it was the reintroduction of the model as well.
Anyway, outside of japan Final Fantasy and MH3 have almost no influence on hardware sales. The reason that ps3 is so far down this gen is because it lost it's stranglehold on NA and others. It came out at too high a cost and didn't have games to back it up for almost 2 years. Japan is not that big of a territory as far as hardware sales go and that is really the only territory that would have been heavily influences by the exclusivity of final fantasy.
Now, if they had been able to retain timed exclusivity of GTAIV, or Assassins Creed, Resident Evil, or any of the other popular franchises in western society they might be in a slightly better position, but not 20 million units better. At most you are talking maybe 2 to 3 million jump is all. Price is a much bigger factor than games, and Sony just barely got to a competitive price point 4 years after launch.
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Final Fantasy VII sold 5.79 million copies in the West (Europe and USA combined) and Final Fantasy X sold well over 4.5 million copies in the West. Surely those titles also moved PS1s and PS2s in the West. FFXIII would have also moved consoles in the West if it had only been on PS3.
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not very many though. It is hard to really compare what kind of impact XIII would have compared to those two titles with it coming out so late in the gen. VII and X both came out about a year after launch and were among the first RPG's for those consoles.
Also, did you notice that almost half of the sells of those games came from japan? A territory that is significantly smaller than the other two combined? Japan represents maybe 20% of the marketshare but almost half of the sales. You see what I mean when I say it is significant in Japan.
You don't hear about Fable II moving hardware that much and it sold over 3 million in the west, which isn't that much less than Final Fantasy X. Selling a lot of copies of games and moving hardware are very different. People just aren't as nuts about RPGs in the west anymore, especially JRPG's.
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FF XIII will sell at least 4 million copies in the West. As a PS3 exclusive it would have done better because at least half the people that bought a PS3, especially among early adapters, did so to play jrpgs. Part of the PS3's struggle this gen has been due to its lack of jrpgs to please its audience which is mainly made up of Western Otaku and anime fans and it's attempt to make it's line-up have Western type franchises that would appeal to its primary audience instead.
Also, I don't think there has been a true indication of how jrpgs sell in the West this gen yet because most of the ones that have been released have been poor to average ones released on the 360 which is still primarily a console for shooter and Western type game fans.
