people will still buy it regardless of quality simply because it has Final Fantasy on the cover. However, it's obvious that the series has taken a nosedive with the dual atrocities of XIII and XIV. XIII has some of the WORST story-telling in the series and probably the most annoying cast since VIII. And it is  NOT possible to defend XIV. Oh dear GOD is that a travesty. Square NEEDS to stop handing this series off to bad writers (XIII) and rushing things (XIV) otherwise the amount of fans this series has will keep dwindling faster and faster.

ryuzaki57.

the man to blame is Hinirobu Sakaguchi tbh, the commerical failure of The Spirits Within led to the bankrupcry of Squaresoft and led to his departure. since then the person as the head of prouduction team 1 had become Yoshinori Kitase, who contrary to common belief is NOT a qualified game designer. he is in fact a film graduate, who was inspired by things like Star Wars, etc, big theatrical motion picutures.(i have no source for this by the way, but the information is out there).

anyway the problems imo began with FF8, when Sakaguchi took a backseat to development to focus on The Spirits WIthin. Kitase, Nomura, Nojima, (and whoever is a key part of production team 1) focused on telling a more teenage drama, instead of the epic sweeping story. this wasnt necessariy a bad thing, but a lot of people cite Squall and the rest of the cast as poor and the story about time compression, Ultimecia, also poor. but the transition to photo realism and cinematic action was what attracted people to it. and those were great things, but they've taken FF to the depths it has sunk to now.

FF9 was done by a different team, and was meant to draw from the series roots, instead of doing things like FF8 did. they did a great job, but the sales were very weak compared to FF8 & 7. Sakaguchi had more direct involvement this time, despite his comitments to the TSW.

FF10, featured the combined force of Sakaguchi and production team 1, who did a good job at the time. but the title aged badly, with the voice acting and dialogue being key culprits. FF10 did feature excellent gamplay however (imo) and incredible production values.

since then Sakaguchi left, and FF went completely downhill. FF10-2 was the beginning of a nightmare for fans such as myself. we've had remake after remake, sequel after sequel, the FF7 compilation has been nothing but an ego trip for Nomura (imho) and a disasterous FF12.

i've already talked a lot, so i wont go into FF12, but theres no doubt the problem with FF has been the departure of Sakaguchi, and the direction Kitase has taken the series in FF13. his background has significantly reduced the element of gameplay in FF13 in favour of 6 hours of teenage melodrama. this imho is a disaster. and without the marketing they would not have achieved these sales, and this would never have sold 6 million if it didnt have FF on the box, just like every other IP this gen from Sqaure has been met with poor reception.

It really is a shame that Spirits Within bombed because I really like that movie.

Imagine what Square Pictures could have become if Spirits Within was a success. A real shame.

doing fine so far it had a little mess up with 14 though.I really wonder how ff15 will look.

As for sales no final fantasy is a strong as ever ^^

Also i would say the series isnt getting worse (if we ignore 14 lol) its just getting weirder. There trying out some very different idea's that obviously causes alot of distress from fans. where as many didn't like ff13 there where also many like myself who totally loved it :P

Then they would have gone under with the second movie like it. It was a big expensive push for a small market. That's why it failed - even a far better movie would have made little difference.

Had they done more mainstream stuff... then Square pictures could have had a long future.

On the verge of collapse? Certainly not.

On the verge of being dethroned as the best selling third-party JRPG series? Heck yeah!

In Japan I think there is a reasonable argument that the series is at best the ninth most important series of the generation, rather than top three as in the PS1 - PS2 eras, as eight series have topped 3m in Japan on the machines released after 2004, and Final Fantasy isn't one of them (and I think stuff like Smash Bros, Nintendogs, and Mario Party is arguably above it too now actually). So in that sense, yeah. Japan has seen far better days for the importance of Final Fantasy.

If you look back in Japan you generally have 2 - 4 series capable of 3m plus entires until very recently when more random types of games began to sell well.

NES: 2D Mario, Dragon Quest

SNES: Mario Kart, 2D Mario, Dragon Quest, DKC (Street Fighter and FF are close, but not quite at the level)

GB / GBC: Tetris (late NES era), 2D Mario (late NES / early SNES era), Pokemon (PS1 era)

PS1: Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy

PS2 / GBA : Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Pokemon

DS / Wii / PSP / PS3 era:  Brain Training, Wii line, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Friend Collection, 2D Mario, Mario Kart, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter

So in terms of big hits, the diversity of recent years seems to have knocked Final Fantasy back to where it was in the NES days, as a big (1-3m) but not huge franchise. You essentially have three RPG brands in Pokemon, MH, and DQ, and five casual brands in Brain Training, Wii-line, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Brain Training.

Essentially there were four break-out hits this generation - Monster Hunter, Brain Training, Friend Collection, and the Wii line (Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc) with the rest (DQ, 2D Mario, Mario Kart, Pokemon) continuations of old brands.

I don't see it ever dying, but it is at a low point at the moment with putting MMO's into the main series, and with X-2, 13 and 14. But goddammit, 12 was still awesome at least :)