I love FFXIII!

This thread is very unbalanced.

I dunno about that, sure FF10 had the best combat system and they shouldn't have ruined it that much with FF13.

But FF10 also had the best story, not FF6/7/8 could compare. FF13 story is garbage to FF10, and FF10 is in my oppinion of one the most compelling story drive games I've played, if not the most compelling story game. Only thing close IMO is Metal Gear Solid 4 and that isn't even in the same genre.

ff13 is the most disappointing ff to date. 

SE should remake ff9 and ill be happy.

Good to see there listening, FF XIII is great but fans are too picky and couldn't settle for a different jrpg.

I have some suggestions for the Final Fantasy franchise:

1. Get rid of the antiquated, decades old "Attack, Magic, Item" turn-based combat system.

2. Implement a real time combat system where computer algorithms based off of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons dice rolling becomes standard fare for combat calculations in real game time as it is in most WRPGs.

3. Stop with this intent on making every Final Fantasy game an interactive 100 plus hour long movie because some hotshot Japanese game developer is envious and aspires to the ranks of Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto.

4. Open up the game world from the very start after the tutorial.

5. Allow the player to progress the main quest line at his/her own time of choosing.

As for the chart the OP displayed, it confirms my suspicions that Japanese gamers love their Japanese games at the expense of equally good if not better titles such as Batman: Arkham Asylum.

If gamers love good games, then can someone tell me why Batman: Arkham Asylum sold only 30,000 copies in Japan, while both Dragon Quests sold close to 6 million? Would it have been different if Konami or another Japanese game developer created Batman: Arkham Asylum?

Different demographics like different things.

DQ is just a better game to them.

Games from Japanese developers sell just as well if not better in the US. There are exceptions in both cases where games are designed with Western or Japanese audiences in mind, not marketed in both markets, and the games end up selling well in one market but not so outside of it. Yakuza and Grand Theft Auto type games from RockStar come to mind immediately.

Just glossing over the preorder charts, there are very few games cross-marketed and the majority of those that are blockbuster titles with a long and storied franchise such as Final Fantasy.

I am unsure of one storied franchise from the West, which sells in comparable numbers to a Dragon Quest, Yakuza, or Final Fantasy game in Japan. I can name plenty of Japanese developed games, which sell well outside of Japan, but not so many Western developed games that do the same in Japan as they do in a market such as North America.

There are also cross overs that both demographics like...

I don't think that Square-Enix can be happy with the FF13 sales.Don't they expected around 12 Mio sales worldwide. Are the current sales even enough to meet the production costs?

As a sidenode: Final Fantasy-Fans will be very happy with The Last Story :)

Look at those European figures. THIS is why Europe should no longer be bundled with others.