Bodhesatva said:
windbane said:
Well, when FF7 came out in Japan (january), the PS1 had less than a 12-million user base. I'm using the March 1997 numbers for this (on this site). It was 20 million by the time it was released in the US. FF7 sold 9.72 million copies. That alone should end this install base arguement. FFX come out when around 20 million PS2s were owned (September numbers being inbetween the US and Japanese release dates). It sold 7.95 million. So... Final Fantasy VII: 12 million install base, 9.72 sold. Final Fantasy X: 20 million install base, 7.95 sold. Metal Gear Solid 1: 43 million install base, 5.51 million sold. Metal Gear Solid 2: Over a 20 million install base (came out 2 months later), 5.56 million sold. Gran Turismo 1: 32+ (month early) million user base, 10.85 million sold. Crash Bandicoot 1: 8.06 user base, 6.76 million sold. Grand Theft Auto 3: 20+ million user base, 11.60 million sold. Even if MGS4 keeps to a 4:1 ratio, it will obviously sell 1 million copies (as someone predicted it wouldn't). The install base will be quite a bit higher when MGS4 comes out than it is now. A lot of the games listed show that the install base doesn't directly tell you how well your game is going to sell. If the game is great, it will sell. |
First, the problem with this logic is obvious: these sytems went on to be the best selling systems of their generation. Grand Theft Auto III, for example, sold copies over the entire course of the PS2's life. It isn't just how many systems are sold when the game technically releases, it's how many are sold over time. For many games this isn't relevant: for these franchises in particular -- which are almost unquestionably the most important franchises for the PS's success -- they continue to sell long after their initial release. In other words, a person who purchased a PS2 for Final Fantasy X (as an example) would often pick up GTA, now that they have the system. Note that Grand Theft Auto 3 and MGS2 came out at approximately the same time, yet GTA sold twice as many copies as MGS did. Second, note that Gran Turismo came out during the same time frame as Final Fantasy, in your chart. That was the best selling game on the Playstation 1 by a significant margin. Your suggestion that this jump in sales is contributable to Final Fantasy exclusively is patently absurd. I'd say at least as many -- if not more -- bought the system for Gran Turismo, and another group bought it for other games not listed here. Final Fantasy VII was a big hit, and so was the Playstation 1, no question. Can you give me any seroius evidence showing that Final Fantasy VII sold 5+ million Playstations, and not, say, Gran Turismo, or Spyro (also in the same time frame), or any other game important to the system? Lastly, can you show me who predicted that MGS4 won't sell 1 million copies? Just point it out to me. Just quote it please. Thanks. What you've shown me suggests, most importantly, that Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, and Grand Theft Auto all sell more systems than MGS does. |
