I'd say it's a testament to the series that this discussion is even being had.  Sales are lower than previous games in the series (to date, its likely to close the gap some) but the notion of calling a game a flop just because of its sales trend against the same franchise is a bit excessive.  It seems to me the drop in sales is less about Final Fantasy as it is a decline in the RPG genre and greater competition.  If you strictly look at the sales of the game and compare it to other (console) games released this generation you'll find the following:

1) It's the 7th highest selling game in Japan; behind 6 first party games released on a console with twice the user base. (It has the highest attach rate of any japanese game)

2) It's the highest selling game on its system and has sold about 2.5x as many copies as the next best selling game.

It hasn't lived up to some people's expectations, but it's a blockbuster title, not a flop.

Final Fantasy can't be "revived" from its CG-induced feature film ways.

You can blame VII, or X, or VIII. Whatever.

I blame the gamers who flocked to it, but are now all of a suddent disappointed because XIII lacks "substance."

Go play the SNES FF's you pricks, if you want a taste of what the series needs today.

Final Fantasy XIII wouldn't have sold any better on PS2. The downward trend for this series started almost a decade ago with a huge decline on the mighty PS2.

PSX

Final Fantasy VII --- 3.277.766
Final Fantasy VIII --- 3.501.588
Final Fantasy IX --- 2.707.301

PS2

Final Fantasy X --- 2.325.215
Final Fantasy X-2 --- 1.960.937
Final Fantasy XII --- 2.322.541

You have to understand the current Japanese market. It has been in decline for sometime now. Last years sales were down a lot from the previous year.

This year has pretty much continued that trend.

Last week a total of 117k units were sold. Compared to 168k for the same week the previous year. And compared to 183k for the same week 2 years ago.

This generation probably peaked 2 years agon in Japan and since that time numbers have fallen far. Even the PS3 is heavily down. Last week it sold 25k, the same week last year it sold 60k+.

Square Enix are just doing what other Japanese games companies are having to do which is think about how to continue to make money in the current climate. To do this means they have to appeal more to western gamers to bridge the gap from the falling Japanese numbers.

FFXIII did bad in Japan in comparison to other FF games but in comparison to other japanese releases of the past few years it has done very well. That is the only way you can compare them. The landscape has changed.

I disagree.  It probably would have sold more, if only because it was on a system Japan was obsessed with.  The fact that it was on PS3 really affected its sales.  And eventhough people want to claim the very same thing that Ken Kutaragi said years ago and that 'If you want a PS3, you'll save up for one', it probably kept many people from buying the game because they couldn't afford it or didn't want to.  Why should someone in Japan buy a PS3 and one game when they could buy 10 other DS games for the same price?

In the end, it'll go down as probably the best selling Japanese PS3 game.  But it probably could have done twice as good on the PS2 or DS.  Or even better.

Well square-enix expected 2 million for its sales in Japan, they said this the day before it was launched...check articles. So no it did not flop

the word flop is used very loosely here.

Remember FF10-2 did 1.95 Million in sales before its international release....after that it stood at 2.4 Million

When FF13 gets a "international" release & hopefully a 360 version in Japan its total could very well be around 2.3 - 2.4 Million in Japan

BUT the sales declines for the FF franchise is a concern of mine too. It began with FF8 clearly....then no FF after that to could stop the decline except for FF10...but even then it hardly showed a huge rise over FF9.

BUT the sales in the west are fabulous so far, then again like kenryoku said PS3 is "weak" in Japan but in the west its still seen as pretty powerful & attractive.

I have a solution for the decline in Japan which I'll post in my next post

@Kenryoku_Maxis

Your only problem is you can't see beyond your own point, you've twisted my words to make sense with your logic and until you stop that you can not see the fundamental axiom of my post, do not try to respond to it any further; your wasting your text.

Hm, I don't know who you think I am to insist on anything.

I just wanted to see what you think I'm thinking, because you aparrantly are in my head.

Now that I know what you think I think, I can say you should stop thinking because your wrong.

edit: double post. whoops

I don't know about that. You're talking about hardware, we're mainly talking about the sales of individual games in a series. There are many series that haven't taken this turn - take Dragon Quest, for example. (taken from here)

DQ1 - 1,500,000
DQ2 - 2,410,000
DQ3 - 3,770,000
DQ4 - 3,040,000
DQ5 - 2,790,000 (SNES)
DQ6 - 3,190,000
DQ7 - 3,893,293 (PS1)
DQ8 - 3,538,860 (PS2)
DQ9 - 4,020,000+ (DS)

That series has managed to maintain its popularity after all these years.

I'd say the main problem for FFXIII in particular (as opposed to the PS2 games) is how the userbase is split between 4 consoles this gen. Not everyone can afford having a DS, Wii, PSP, and PS3. There are probably many people who would have bought FFXIII had it been on a console they owned, but decided to skip out this round (or find some other way to play the game).

The series does have other problems, as seen by its consistent decline since the PS1 games, though I can't really say I know the best way to fix it. It peaked on the PS1, so the remedy should be somewhere in FF5-FF8.