Hardware Comparison Threads:

Final Fantasy is doing totally fine worldwide though. It had a much better launch than all other PS5 exclusives, aside from GoW Ragnarok (holiday bundle launch) only in its first week and is the sixth best selling PS exclusive at launch. It also sold more units than HFW at launch, which is now at around 9 million.

This game has a lot of potential to reach the 10 million mark on PS5 alone. Square also got a heavy bag of Sony money and plenty of Sony support during development. Furthermore it could also get a bundle for extra sales. So I wouldn't say that's bad perse or that FF is anywhere close to being irrelevant.

Next year it will also get a PC port, so I don't think this game is doing that bad at all, it's just not doing great in Japan (which is a much smaller market than US or Europe). The Japanese market is basically dead for PS software to begin with.

FF7 remake also is pretty close to the 10 million mark and will most likely pass FFXV worldwide. So a game being (semi) exclusive doesn't have to be bad for it's sales or value. Especially if someone is willing to pay a big check for it.

.. Furthermore it could also get a bundle for extra sales.

What so you mean by that? Yesterday I was going through shops, searching for a peculiar cable. All PS5s on shelves were FF16 bundles, everywhere.

FFXV has sold not much more than 1 million on Xbox. Being multiplatform on console didn't change its overall sales success. XV launched late on PC and XVI will do the same 

We can't really talk about the franchise's "decline" commercially when the last entry is the biggest in the franchise lol. 

As far as XVI we'd really need to look at it's sales throughout a decent period of time. VII R opened big but had very short legs. It's overall meek performance can probably be tied to it being only part of the full game and the nostalgia aspect being overated.

Lastly the franchise hasn't grown massively as it maybe could have but the first place I'd look is at the highly divisive experience people have been having recently with Both mainline games (XIII & XV) and the spinoffs. Most people I know haven't loved a FF since the 2000s. Let's see if 16 can help mend that...

Of course being on Switch would help SE shift more units but I think its blatantly against their ambitions for mainline FF for the time being & mainline FF isn't actually declining in sales so far. 

I believe FF will never experience big growth like other franchises 

It's a game that heavily changes the gameplay every entry. People always get dissatisfied with something. I'm talking with some friends who liked FF XV (it was their only FF) and are not liking XVI because they can't control party members and exploration is limited compared with XV open spaces

It's hard to build a core fandom when some games are so different from others. Of course you have people like me who are fans exactly because we don't know what we're getting, but weirdos like are are the minority. Most people want their games to be exactly the same with some iterative evolutions

Even if XVI experience great word of mouth and end selling 15 million (won't happen, but let's pretend for the sake of the argument) I believe this will not lead to a big increase in sales for the next entry, specially if they change everything again

I believe FF will never experience big growth like other franchises 

It's a game that heavily changes the gameplay every entry. People always get dissatisfied with something. I'm talking with some friends who liked FF XV (it was their only FF) and are not liking XVI because they can't control party members and exploration is limited compared with XV open spaces

It's hard to build a core fandom when some games are so different from others. Of course you have people like me who are fans exactly because we don't know what we're getting, but weirdos like are are the minority. Most people want their games to be exactly the same with some iterative evolutions

Even if XVI experience great word of mouth and end selling 15 million (won't happen, but let's pretend for the sake of the argument) I believe this will not lead to a big increase in sales for the next entry, specially if they change everything again

That 1m on Xbox makes up for the 1m they miss out on in Japan, XVI's opening shows the series continues to slide in the region while PC would have given XV another 1 to 2m in sales so again the last entry is only the biggest because of multiplatform releases they helped offset the decline in the region.

We can talk about decline because that's what is happening in the region which is the point both XV and VIIR only hit 1m in Japan in a series that used to hit 3m in the region, both these games had little legs after launch week I don’t see XVI being any different.

Other games have had divisive games but have still grown, Zelda being one with a few before BOTW and even RE series with RE7, the issue isn't FF being divisive it's the quality and appeal of what's been put out. Having ambition is one thing but the comes a point where you have to step back and assess if you have the right ambition going forward and if it's focusing on the right priority in doing so.