2- The sales of the series has been going down since Final Fantasy VII not X.

2- The sales of the series has been going down since Final Fantasy VII not X.

In terms of sale for Final Fantasy XIII, it first time Final Fantasy not released on leading home console in the generation, hence lower sales potential. Although PS2 have smaller install base when FFX release, all fans on the one console, not divided.

Furthermore, in Nihon this especially the case where PS3 and even Wii lack the popularity of PS2; also population is ageing reducing the audience size; more handheld gaming as people desire to help avoid otaku stereotype. Hence much of the Final Fantasy audience has moved exclusively to handhelds. Thus the success of PSP Final Fantasy. In Square-Enix wanted to maximise sales in Nihon, Final Fantasy XIII would have done best on handhelds, although this would have destroyed the brand in the west due to the western lust for HD graphics. Hence Square-Enix's dilemma.

I do not say critical reception has had no influence, however. Critical reception has decreased with FFXIII and FFXIV in the west and has negatively impacted sales in the west. I do not believe any damage to critical reception and thus sales is evident in Nihon, where MMO gaming is not mainstream. But western tastes have certainly seem to as far as I am aware changed greatly recently to a desire for more open RPG , whereas Japanese interests have not followed this change; most here like gameplay to be a immediate and direct consequence of story all the time in Final Fantasy.

As far as my knowledge in my age group (13), the consensus here with my friends is FFXIII is an excellent Final Fantasy. I believe it is regarded as excellent across the whole audience here. Many even say here that it is the best Final Fantasy ever. I am aware the Final Fantasy western audience is much older on average, which causes the divided opinions between east and west over the character personalities.

Thus it seems only western audience consensus give FFXIII mixed reception.

I have always considered for a long time that the main numbered series titles have been used recently to maintain the "quality" image of the brand, so that smaller budget handheld games that will sell much better in relation to their budgets with the "quality" brand recognition driving sales and leading to overall success for Square Enix.

I would only consider Final Fantasy to be on the verge of collapse if a non-MMO numbered Final Fantasy received the critical reception and sales of FFXIV. With FFXIV they will get away with it as most people here have no exposure to MMO gaming or even computer "gaming" to that end besides visual novels. Also I have no doubt that FFXIV will eventually become at least the second most successful Final Fantasy for Square Enix considering the eventual subscription fees, huge fanbase from FFXI and FFXI being by far the most financially successful Final Fantasy worldwide in the series.

I also do not believe Square Enix would ever release a non-MMO numbered Final Fantasy in the state of FFXIV, due to non-MMO game needing to be content-complete at launch date. Moreover, there is huge exposure to the gameplay to the mainstream public in recent non-MMO Final Fantasy as disk demo versions seem to have become a standard here for the series. If backlash were to come, thus, it would come before the game was released, giving the opportunity for a massice delay. Hence I believe that the only way Final Fantasy can die is a long, slow, steady decline in sales over a large number of numbered games in the series, falling below the high budget (so I guess about 3 million in the recent future). I believe Final Fantasy will be strong for a long time to come.

No, it's been in decline since X.  X sold less than VII, but X sold more than IX, so it reversed the previous decline.

1- Final Fantasy XIII sold 6.16m worldwide so far (which makes it the 4th best selling FF atm).
2- The sales of the series has been going down since Final Fantasy VII not X.
3- Yes, the sales in Japan is horrible compared to its predecessors.
4- VI-X and XII all got 90 metascore. The only ones with lower score are XI (85), XIII (83) and XIV (51).

In other words, no. The series isn't on the verge of collapse.... unless Final Fantasy XV fails to deliver.

But there was a spike in sales with FFX.

and there is a lot of factors to the low number of sales in Japan.

Kazuki's, you make the point I would have exactly. Anyone who has lived in Japan or knows a lot of people knows the country would probably collapse before FF,  Some people over there would rather play FF than eat when starving.

I'm confident the Japanese could sustain FF alone, I'm not saying other regions arent important or their sales dont help, its just that FF has an almost religious appeal over there that doesn't apply in the western world. Their passion for this franchise is in fact one of the major reasons I actually started thinking gaming was actualy worth continuing with.

From those I know there FFXIII is held in extremely high regard, Mainly because of its similarty in gameplay style to FFX, which is held in the same regard over there it seems as VII is here (mass opinion says it is the "best" one).

And if 6 million sales is "on the verge of collapse",then the gaming industry is in dire straits. FFXIII outsold over 80% of the industry this generation. If that is a bad day for Square Enix as a company then their bad days are very very good.