Fact, the PS3 version of FFXIII alone outsells Mass Effect 2. Translation : the most disappointing RPG  (so called) (and most disappointing game (so called)) of the year is more popular than the GOTY (and best RPG).  Both versions are in the top 50 of the year. I think this ends the "poor sales" argument.

Secondly, I do sense, as I die hard fan, that the series is indeed in deep trouble. But who's to blame? SquareEnix? probably. Players? They gave the game a chance and some (many?) liked it. Journalists? you have it. Between Xmas and New Year, the game has suffered a huge wave of hate and mockery from websites that gave it I marks at release (why?). After rating 8/10 and more, they're now telling us it's flawed from A to Z, and that nothing can be expected from the series anymore. "FF is not what it used to be" "need for a reboot" etc. are the latest headlines. VersusXIII is not making them anymore... Game journalism is broken, and broke Final Fantasy, which will probably become a niche market like many others JRPGs.

Just wrong.

i think the thing that has pissed of (myself included) most of the haters, was that so many things were left out.

the world was never so streamlined (e.g limited), you cannot access any house (as if there were many anyway.. ) there was almost nothing to do aside from the mainstory, no deep hidden secrets that had nothing to do with the Fal'cie thing..

and as Square told us so often already ~ a game like FF7 couldnt be remaked without MUCH effort. (much much more than FFXIII has taken.) Why? because of the technical prsentation. it consumes so much time and money .. that the Games overall size suffers from it.

to me, FFXIII had the same monotone feeling as a FPS. 'luckilly' the presentation was great and has maked up for it.

it isnt square's fault, its simply that games get more and more complex.

No way. FF is still a force to be aware of. Yes, FFXIV was a dissaster, but even then I imagine it will have a stable folowing in the longrun, and it will actually become good with all the updates its getting. Any time SE will make a AAA main FF game, it will have the sales potential of 7 IMO. They just need to get their act together, and I actually think that after they got raped by the media, they might actually start putting people in their QA teams, and not just monkeys.

lol, well said mate.

i think the entire publicy policy of Square is bullshit.

Sometimes, i think they dont give a shit about gamers. they didnt take criticism from FFXIV's Beta Players, and they place a goddamn closed theater into any convention, that prevents the customers from seeing the product.

I think there is a clear slowdown in the popularity of the series, it's mainly coming from Japan, where FF is not what it once was. I think people do overlook the fact that, for the first FF in a new generation of consoles, FFXIII has preforms pretty poorly compared to the last two generations, where FF7 and FFX both set high marks for the generation, and the subsequent FF releases fell off a at steady percent. Given that FFXIII is just over 6 million sold, it's reasonable to assume, that if another non-MMO, non-spin off (Verses XIII is a spin-off) is released this generation it will fail to move 5 million units world wide, which would be the first time a non-MMO main series title has done that since FFVI.

I do look at Japan as the cause of this, since FFX each FF seires title has failed to move as many copies as the last, it's been trending down for nearly a decade now, it's not something new. The franchise will continue to be a major player though, through spin offs, re-releases, etc. It's not the FF I love anymore though, they have alienated a lot of fans with their changes to the core gameplay.

FF XIII will top 7 millions  combined soom a huge gaming successn if  you ask me , but since some people like you don 't  like masterpieces as FF XII and a great games as FF XIII i can 't continue a discussion here

I honestly don't see FFXIII passing 7 million units solid. FF's are top heavy.

Some other interesting information.

FFX launched collectively to a console install base of just under 21 million PS2s.
FFXIII launched collectively to an install base of nearly 71 million PS3s and 360s, that shows how strong FFX sales were upon launch compared to FFXIII.

One good FF game would restore series splendor. Look at how people waited for FF XIII despite weak FF XII.

And most people don't care about MMO parts even if they are numbered.

After having played some parts of VI, VIII, X, and XIII. It's my opinion that the series is getting worse over time. Not surprising since it's creator has left and the devs are getting more and more eccentic and the art is getting more and more abstract and the gameplay is getting more and more illogical and confusing.

And SE actually released a numbered entry that terrible (FFXIV), I wouldn't be surprised if the series collapsed some time in the future.