How can you say that the sales are poor of XIII it's only been out for a little more than a month, the LT is nowhere near and with appropriate price cuts they can bring in some more sales some £5 from the launching price and according to most fans it is the most abysmal FF game they have ever played. Not comparing it to VII would be a good start, I never got into FF but a friend of mine is like a fanatic, he got XIII on launch and he told me that the game was pretty crap - niche story, linear, not much RPG element left to it, and he liked the XII and X.

Word of mouth - chances are those who brought it have told their mates how crap the game was, it spread and the appeal died down, until the price hits sub 20 the sales will probably remain stale in comparison with other releases.

Since you're icon is snake, I figured you didn't think metal gear solid 4 was a flop. Metal Gear Solid 4 is not niche. It is less niche in america than Final Fantasy and the numbers from Metal Gear Solid 2 sales decrease the same amount to Metal Gear Solid 4. As FFX numbers decrease to FFXIII beings MG2 and FFX sold over 6 million, and FFXIII and MGS2 has yet to sell 5 million. It's a viable comparison, and thus if one flopped so did the other. I think neither of those flopped

but by your definition both MGS4 and FFXIII flopped. And thats fine

But since you still do not understand or accept the definition of flop. You win the argument, and in return I leave you with these parting words

あなたがばかだと思います. :)

You know thelifatree, あなたが馬鹿だと思います。is an insult!! haha, only joking ^^

However, it should be alarming for SE that FFXIII shows a decline in interest for the FF series. I thought this game was supposed to revive the series from what "half of the FF fanbase" saw as "two huge disappointments (FFXI and FFXII)". As we can see by the sales, this will be the worst selling FF game debuting on it's generations platforms. Both FFVII and FFX outsold/will outsell it by a lot. The game had major hype and many saw it as the savior of the FF series. Also, after closely witnessing how the game sold in Japan (A LOT of copies returned in many stores. I mean A LOT. In late December - January I saw more used copies of FFXIII than any other game I have ever witnessed in game stores in Tokyo. People were returning this game like crazy over in Japan. In addition, it's legs have completely been cut of. I mean, it sold 895 copies in Japan this week. When only 1.9 million people out of 5 million console owners have bought the game, one should expect better sales than 895 copies in it's 17th week), I think there has been a lot of disappointed FFXIII buyers out there. I know they have The Best- versions of these games and that they sold a lot less than FFXIII overall, but MGS4 (96th week) sold 2044 copies, Demon's Souls (62nd week) sold 2474 copies and Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 (59th week) sold 2249 copies. That is not good for FF as a series, that a main game sees legs of 895 copies sold in it's 17th week in Japan. That means that out of all the thousands of new PS3 sold every week in Japan, almost no one buys FFXIII at all when they pick up a system...

I have never been a FF fanatic, but I was looking into getting this game. I have been trying to get into the FF series lately with PSP remakes and PS1/PS2 classics, and when me and my friend bought our PS3s, one of the games we were looking forward to was FFXIII. After following SE the last couple of years though and following FFXIII closely, I can't say that I want to buy this game at all. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the game and there has been cuts in this game, the biggest cut being the exploration in the game. I don't care for what reason, but cuts have been made. And the rumors surrounding these "cuts" may make it into the game through DLC are not making me want this game any more than I already do.

I would actually say that overall, FFXIII is a flop. Yeah, the game has sold a lot of copies, but people buy a lot of games this generation and there are a lot of people who just, you know, "jump the gun" and buy a game before they know if it's any good at all. Final Fantasy has the power to sell games on the brand name alone and this might make a lot of people "jump the gun". That's why we see many copies returned and awful legs in, especially Japan. Let's see how it's legs will be like, only then we can determine if the game is a "flop" or not.

edit: about many returned copies in Japan and horrible legs: yes I know Japan is famous for it's huge 2nd hand market, but still 895 copies in a game's 17th week in the HOMELAND of JRPGs is just horrible.

edit2: Oh, and OP is far away from funny... If this was anyone but Rol, let's say a normal forum member like myself with a low post count, they would be banned for a long, long, long time for flaming and trolling another member of the forum, etc, etc, etc no matter if it was a joke or not. Even if he wrote a "disclaimer" in the OP, the whole point of this thread is to get attention, to get other forum members riled up and to get some VG$ or whatever you guys collect... You are very inconsistent with your banning on this site. I mean, you ban people for speaking their mind with a little bit of so-called "hard-criticism", basically criticism at all against certain subjects (RROD, YLOD, Sony, 360 failure rates, Nintendo's problem with 3rd party/mature games, Nintendo, 360, MS, or whatever) or just the cold hard truth, while you let "elite trollers" like this keep luring people into flaming, making them get banned for it. I'm almost expecting to get banned for calling this out...

That is fine you views make sense. I love this game, But I know the fanbase... isn't in agreement like they were with 7 and 10.

FF8 is another game I loved. That was split not as much as 13, but it was the Sequal to FF7 so it sold a ton

FF11 doesn't count as it's online based and FF14 as well... because most people no thats not supposed to be the same experience

All I'm saying is that this wasn't a flop because it sold will and will sell within the FF parameters. Like I mean like movies like Star Wars Prequels They weren't very good but they sold like hell)

but what this does create is the possibility with the lukewarm reception, of SQUARE is running out of time before FF can be a guarenteed 5 million sale... which is bad because they need it to sell that money because the budgets are so high... for a Gorgeous 40 hour JRPG.

And if they made a FF and it sold like 2 million then or 1 million or some number where they lost money or something then it's a flop rather than underperforming.

Which could also explain, why square is trying to diversify themselfs from their 3 main franchises of JRPG's KH, DQ, FF. By buying eidos and getting money for games such as Deus Ex (HOOORAY) and Publishing things like Just Cause

the definition I put of a flop as A massive failure

Well the marketing campaign for FFXIII did not make the game look very manly. I'm sure all the frat boys wanted FFXIII after watching the "My hands" ad.

A LITTLE MORE TIME ON THIS SITE WILL MAKE YOU predict alot better

this is nothing but a flambait thread. You all fell for it. lol

God of War III has better graphics

i am talking of it being in context of  comparing it with FF series numbers and hype behind FF13.

anyways,i can see u are knew on this site and you will stop behaving in this way till you spend a couple of more months on it,everybody that comes on this site is the same way that you are behaving.

just one last question,do you think if franchises like Halo of Gran turismo only did 2m,they wouldn't be considered a flop?

stop sticking to the defintion,and try to understand what the other person is trying to say.its like a nerd who tops the class,knows everthing in the book and doesn't know anything about the concerned matter or other thing ouside his books.

well FF13 did start off okay, but it has no legs.

It is already way way behind Modern Warfare 2 and that was released in November last year lol