The sales are great. 7 million copies is pretty much guaranteed.

Flop flop flop...

WHy the hell is the word flopped used so much in here?!!


It's has great sales on PS3 alone and I'm happy about the sales of a great game.

Indeed. Selling to ~37% of the user base is bloody impressive for any game. There isn't a developer in the world that would consider capturing >35% of the potential market for a game is disappointing or worthy of being called a flop. How many games (not auto-bundled) have sold to a higher proportion of the user base in Japan?

Not a single game on 360 has got above 30% (best so far is just under 20%)

Only NSMB on Wii, (Wii Sports & Wii Fit are >30% but lower % then FFXIII)

None for PSP

None for DS

And for PS3 only FFXIII

Worldwide, other than the auto-bundled games, only Wii Play is selling above 35% of the install base.

So from an attach rate perspective, this gen FFXIII in Japan shares it's position with only one other title: NSMB Wii. That's pretty good company to be keeping.

It's the ONLY million selling PS3 game in Japan so far this gen, and when it gets to 2 million it'll be the only 2 million selling PS3 game in Japan for PS3's entire lifespan I'd wager. So for a PS3 game in Japan it's actually a massive success.

So I think S-E and Sony are more than happy with FFXIII's sales. The one thing Sony might be a bit disappointed with is that other than the temporary spike in HW sales FFXIII didn't raise PS3 sales to new heights, but even so it still pushed adecent amount of hardware if you consider the PS3 sales from the demo release early in 2009 as well as the full game release spike. But having captured 80% of the FFXII market means there aren't all that many die hard FF fans who don't have a PS3 already. And It'll probably get to 90% of FFXII at least.

The only metric by which you could say FFXIII can be called a flop is in relation to the sales in Japan of other FF titles. So OK it's probably going to be the lowest selling main title FF game in Japan on a PS console (but it's not the lowest selling main FF title ever). But it's selling in the main title ballpark as opposed to spin-off / secondary title ballpark (<1 million). So the only way you could really say FFXIII is a true flop in Japan is if it sold at the spin-off / secondary title level rather than getting into the main title sales level.

Can you say Japan sales are good? Maybe not. Can you say sales are acceptable? Yes. Can you say sales are in line with expectations? I'd say yes, because it seems S-E didn't over ship in Japan. Can you say sales are OK? Yes.

A flop = unacceptably low sales. FFXIII sales are not unacceptably low in Japan.

Actually, RE4 outsold RE5 overall... thanks Wii.

so RE5 flopped?

@binary solo

i ment it in realtion to other games in jpn. In west its a massive hit. But because ov japan I can't call the "worldwide" numbrs anything over "great".

Good is a relative term.  Now in general, FF13 did do well.  5.55 mil copies is good for any game.  However, when comparing it to SE's predicted sales, it doesn't seem so big. FF13 was expected by SE to sell 10 mil just like FF7.  [Edit: Actually it was Wada hoping it would sell 10 mil.  But, officially they stated 6 mil, which it looks like they will just make.  I guess SE didn't have as high as hopes as Wada]  And it was released under the same situation as FF7, as well.  The first installment of the series on this gen of consoles.  It was the first using a new storage format, so the possibilities seemed almost endless.  And it had a HUGE amount of hype surrounding its release.  But, when all is said and done, it will most likely fall 4 mil short of that 10 mil goal. 

If we compare it to the other games in the series, things don't look that great, either.  FF8 was able to sell 8.15 mil, and also started a downward trend for sales in the series.  FF9 was only able to sell 5.3 mil copies.  However, if we look at the circumstances of its release it's not hard to see why.  It came out in July of '00, which was 3 months after the lauch of the PS2 and over a 1 1/2 years after the Dreamcast, so this was a time when people were moving on to the next gen.  FF10 was able to raise the bar again with 6.6 mil (though VGC has it at 7.95 mil).  I'm going to skip the online FF11, since it's pretty obvious why that didn't sell as well.  Finally, FF12 sold 5.2 mil (VGC states 5.69 mil).  Now, some people say it sold less because of its gameplay deviating from the FF norm.  I haven't played this one, so I wouldn't know.  However, I do know it launched in March of '06 (Japan) and Nov. of '06 (NA), so the same year as the PS3 launch and a year after the launch of the 360.  So, just like FF9, it was a time people were moving onto the next gen of systems.  Like I said above, with the circumstances surrounding FF13 it should have sold much better.

Now as far as a flop, I am 100% sure SE made profit off of the game.  How much?   Not sure, as I don't think they released the budget, but I know it wasn't as much as other installments.  I mean FF13 started on the PS2, which they originally developed the White Engine for.  When development was switched over to the PS3, they stated they lost 2 years of work since they had to learn how to work on the PS3, as well as retool their engine to work on it.  Then when they decided to go multi-plat, they had to refine their engine once again to be multi-platform, later redubbed Crystal Tools.  And let's not forget they had to learn how to compensate for the limited storage space of DVD. 

I think in the end FF13 will sell somewhere between FF12 and 10.  I would qualify that as good, just not great.  Especially considering FF7 and FF10 sold so well on install bases that were nowhere near the combined install base of ~70 mil that FF13 released on.

no they expcted 6 million shipped (whch they will get easily)

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6230719.html

they sed it at financial briefing 5 mnths ago.

and wrldwide it will look bad in comparison to ff10/8 because of jpn, thts my whole reaosning for why th game "flopped" in jpn because jpn is responsible for it looking weak worldwide whn western sales r very strong.

And I dnt knw wht circumstances, 83 metacritic, bad marketing (leona lewis), ff13 ddnt hve gud circumstnces at launch.

I guess that was the realistic prediction.  But, I could swear around or before that time someone from SE was saying it would sell as well, if not better than FF7.

Edit:  It was Wada.  Though, he just said he was hoping it would.  http://www.finalfantasyunion.com/news/square-enix-final-fantasy-xiii-will-outsell-final-fantasy-vii--710.html

obviusly any1 "hopes" their new game sells as well as their bst selling one.

whts imprtant to see is his "expctations", they wer 6 million shipped whch it will get easily. bt it cud hve dun more if it wsnt for japan hving weak sales (in comprison to older ff's).

I pointed out all the reasons I believe you are wrong in my last post, and you have yet to respond. Undeniable reasons.....