Famitsu Sales: Week 16, 2020 (Apr 13 - Apr 19)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Metallox said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

A couple of months ago I really thought FF7 and Animal Crossing were games of similar sales caliber.  I thought sales were going to be close with Animal Crossing having a bit of an advantage.  According to Wikipedia, "by the end of 2005, [Final Fantasy 7] had sold 9.8 million copies worldwide, including 4 million sales in Japan and 5.8 million sales abroad in North America and Europe."  And that was on the PS1 alone.  The best selling Animal Crossing previously was Wild World, and VGChartz has it sold 5.3m in Japan and 12.1m worldwide.  Considering FF7 had been released on other platforms I really saw these games as close in sales.

Different games, different circumstances, different scenarios. VII Remake was released in a time where interest in Final Fantasy in general has dropped in Japan, whereas Animal Crossing got bigger after New Leaf. New Horizons also resembles the games that are more along the current tastes of Japanese gaming, and it also released on a machine that has been huge for Nintendo so far. 

I think it doesn't matter if VII was insanely popular in its time. If VII Remake doesn't appeal to the current tastes, which it clearly doesn't, it will never have a comparable sales growth to Animal Crossing. 

Let's go back a couple of months ago before either game was released.  What indication would you have that Animal Crossing got bigger after New Leaf?  Sales from Wild World to New Leaf went down.

Also, what do you mean by changing tastes?  The only obvious change in taste for Japan is the growth of handhelds and the shrinking of home consoles.