If they sold a million on the Xbox they will break a milestone on the console, also there is no way in hell 450k copies would have sold extra on the Ps3 since the game at from the beginning insane hype. However with the xbox version people have something to blame if they don't like the game!

Shooters will always outsell JRPGs, regardless of which is better !

Being multi-platform didn't seem to hurt GTA IV or MW2 one tiny bit. In fact, it would have been impossible for those games to sell more copies by being exclusive.

^the real question would be, is the revenue SE makes from the 360 version going to be enough to profit and make the whole investment worth it?

Those games appeal to a much larger proportion of 360 gamers (Western gamers generally) than a JRPG. What are 360 JRPG sales generally like in the west compared to 360 shooter sales? What's important for FFXIII is that it maintains the FF franchise as the premier JRPG franchise on home consoles in the West. It's going to achieve that quite handily, though because I know almost nothing about Wii JRPG sales in the West maybe FF is only the premier JRPG for the HD consoles. The question is, does a mid-level (and growing) popularity shooter outselling the most popular JRPG represent an unexpected result?

If FFXIII ends up being the lowest selling FF since FFVII. And it's Western sales % is lower than would expected for a FF game (should be between 47% and 60% to fall in the expected range), then you can surely say that multiplating didn't help sales at all.

What still can't be said is whether multiplating was harmful. Because the game would have been fundamentally the same even if it was PS3 exclusive. Sure there might have been some differences and a bit more content, but realisticallly the theme, design, story, general gameplay and visual quality would have been the same. I defy anyone to offer conclusive proof that changes attributable to going multiplat have caused a significant negative effect on general gamer appeal.

Well you can't really get millions of sales and not hit the mainstream, honestly girls I know that most would group with mainstream play DDR/PiU, Guitar Hero, Pokemon, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy.  If you want an RPG that really doesn't hit that mainstream crowd in the West that would be DQ.

And for people complaining about how you can't compare the two... well Final Fantasy simply is the biggest JRPG franchise in the West that isn't pokemon (which is really hard to classify as a JRPG or WRPG since it lacks a lot of the distinct characteristics of both) so with HD games generally having bigger front loaded sales and breaking records for older franchises (even if the game is worse than its last gen predecessor, like RE5) people were expecting a lot from FFXIII.  Though I really wasn't one of those guys, I'm just throwing it out there, some people had big expectations.

Honestly for me things are shaping up how I thought they would, XIII isn't setting the world on fire, the series fanbase is kinda dying it seems, however it is a rather slow dying off. 

"Final Fantasy simply is the biggest JRPG franchise in the West that isn't pokemon (which is really hard to classify as a JRPG or WRPG since it lacks a lot of the distinct characteristics of both)"

Doesn't it sell better than even western RPGs? I mean, the bestselling I can think of are Oblivion and Fallout 3, but if I missed some, please let me know.

As for all the comments, it seems the general idea is this showing how much the FPS market has grown this generation, while the RPG market isn't that hot right now.

I'll get back to you when it outsells FF12 worldwide.

Anyway on the bolded:

Square-Enix claimed its the fastest selling title in the series in the west.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/13360-final-fantasy-xiii-fastest-selling-title-yet-in-series/

The low point in sales post FF7 was FF9....not even FF12.

And it will most definetely outsell FF9 worldwide.

Shooter>JRPG in the west.

worldwide it's what matters anyway.