The "I don't care about this game, so it doesn't matter" trick

[Bodhesatva]

Erik Aston said:
FF12 will still be a WW 5-million seller, a mark that DQ is yet to reach. And FF has hit that mark with three games each of the last two generations, a period where only two DQ games have been released. Obviously, FF is still far more important.

That may change soon, as I expect DQ9 to match FF13 in sales, but as of the last 10 years, FF is a waaay bigger franchise WW.

While I largely agree, Erik Aston, there is an important note to make. Final Fantasy sells extremely well in all regions. If a game sells less well than Final Fantasy, it's usually because it's trounced by the franchise in all three regions: Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortex, for example, sold well in all three regions (approximately 240,000 copies in Japan, 1.95 in America and 2.78 in Europe), but not as well as Final Fantasy in any of them, and thus was soundly beaten in sales.

Dragon Quest is different. It's beaten by Final Fantasy because of America and Europe: it routinely and consistently sells better than Final Fantasy does in Japan. Looking here:

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=PS2&publisher=&sort=Japan

You can see that Dragon Quest VIII wasn't just a good seller in Japan, it was the best sellling game on the PS2 in Japan. Ever. That says a lot, and it has consequences. Crash Bandicoot is -- at best --  a minor system selling game in all regions; in contrast, Dragon Quest is meaningless in America and Europe, but almost certainly the most decisive game for console dominance in Japan. Over any other franchise, period. That's an important distinction to note.