The seems to be a notion here that this is the result of games being different from the classic games I heavily disagree this is the result of how SE has handled the franchise in the past decade and a half going as far back as XIII in 2009. Lets start with what FF used to be it was the trailblazer for the whole genre at one point effectively like what Street Fighter is to the fighting game genre so when XIII dropped the ball massively it began the path to this whole situation SE continued their puzzling approach with two follow ups to XIII. XIII was then followed up by the disastrous first launch of XIV leading to it requiring redevelopment we then rolled over into the FFXV debacle a game with a ten year development cycle hyped to bring FF into the modern era but ended up being the most underwhelming open world title of its era and like XIII had some odd development choices.
This then runs into the FFVIIR clown foolery where someone at SE doesn't know what the word Remake means and that's when you give them the benefit of the doubt because if you don't the situation turns into a bait and switch scenario, can go into details if asked but understand the are unavoidable spoilers, and the curious decision of fragmenting one game into three. All of this is why XVI and Rebirth have sold what they did the games themselves are fine for reference FFXII had significant changes to the formula and still sold well (6.4m) and that's because unlike the two prior mentioned games it didn't have sixteen years of bizarre and damaging handling before it that's what has driven away a number of consumers, I have little doubt that if SE had not had this circus of a run in it's management and leadership both XVI and Rebirth would at least both have 5-7m.
Essay Pro