A significant portion of the PS5 version's copies comes from bundles. They had a lot of those last year during the shortages.

Well Chiba is a pretty big region of Japan near Tokyo but I don't see a reason why most PS5 sales would be concentrated there...

True. But those GT7 bundles were priced higher (6000 yen more) than a standard PS5 and people still bought them. 

So all those bundled copies of GT7 did make money for Sony. 

What prompted GT7 & Miles' return to top 30?

FF16 being some kind of Monster Hunter World moment for the FF series (which is what I think Square-Enix was hoping for) looks like it's been a fairly big bust.

I think they are going to have to swallow their pride and pivot towards supporting the Switch 2 with day/date or close to day 1 releases for mainline FF games if they want the brand to stop declining. Yes, I'm saying Final Fantasy 17 on Switch 2 alongside PS5 and XBox. 

A series that requires sky high production values but has declining sales is not a good combination. 

Clearly the Playstation alone is not going to do it, they've been banging their head on that wall for a while. Even FF7 Remake ... the sales aren't what you'd expect for a game that hyped (I remember lots of people online acting like it would crush Animal Crossing in sales ... lol). 

For sure agreed on that. Only problem is that, as you say, FF is sky high production value for consoles, meaning it'd be hard to put it on portables. Hopefully next gen Nintendo will close the gap a little bit with helpful tech like DLSS as compared to the Switch/XB1PS4 gap. If Sony can put FF on Nintendo without drastically downgrading or having to do a significantly different build then its a no brainer as it would make FF a major game in Japan again and give the FF many more millions of sales worldwide.

I think that's another area they're going to have to swallow their pride a bit. Having growing budgets while your sales are declining makes no sense. 

It should be very possible to make a Final Fantasy game that still looks great but can still run on a Switch 2, you're just going to have to plan things from the get go a bit better. A Switch 2 is going have a feature set that is comparable to a PS5, you just have to make sure it can scale settings wise (and DLSS can help a ton in that regard). For example 4K resolution on the PS5/XSX should be scalable to 360p undocked/720p docked native on Switch 2 which you can then use DLSS on  to bring up to 720p undocked, 1440p or 4K docked. Then for the PS5 version if there's any performance left over, you can just crank the ray tracing and that will quickly cripple a PS5/XBox Series X no sweat.

I think that's going to have to be Square-Enix's direction. If they can start to build an audience on the Switch that adds even 1-2 million+ copies per main line Final Fantasy game, that would be a huge change for them. Shit, a Switch 2 version of mainline FF games may add 500k-1 mill just in Japan alone. 

They need to get the series back to being at least a 2 million seller in Japan (let alone the 3+ million FF7/8 sold back in the day) because I don't think FF16 is leading to any kind of huge growth for the IP in the West as they hoped. 

Outside of FFVII Remake and maybe XV Royal, I don’t know if Sony will allow Square Enix to develop a mainline modern FF game on a Nintendo console, even if it’s as powerful as the rumors say it is.

Sony has heavily invested on the most recent FF games.

But I agree, Square needs to release some modern FF games on Switch 2. As much as XVI has been hyped up to the max, it’s selling fine, not exceptional, which I’m sure Square Enix was hoping for.

It was supposed to be their Monster Hunter World and Breath of the Wild moment. I know there’s a difference between first and third parties, but Zelda, a franchise long compared to Final Fantasy, managed to reinvent itself with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and sell more copies combined than arguably the entire franchise ever sold prior to BOTW. XVI should be aiming for 10-12 million LTD in the end. I’m not sure it it’ll come close.

plus, it’s so bizarre seeing a mainline Final Fantasy game likely not even sniff the top 10 software charts in Japan for the end of the year.

FF XVI imho severely lacks the scope and gameplay design to catapult them to MH World or BOTW level. It has no multi-player, it's not open world, don't have customization to engage players for a lot of time. It's basically a story driven action game, which Sony has a vast amount already 

It's the same reason of why Resident Evil is likely not outselling Monster Hunter again

Square-Enix frankly needs to tell Sony to go kick rocks. 

They've driven a franchise that used to be one of the top 3 IP in Japan that used to sell 2-3.5 million every time out and driven that down into the toilet marrying themselves to Playstation consoles, to the point where now it's hovering around 400k retail and is about to drop out of the top 30 entirely. 

That's an embarrassment, the only way FF16 was gonna work is if the franchise had a massive break out in the West and that doesn't look like it's going to happen either. 

16 is not even going to come close to 10 million, no chance. Not unless they discount it to like $10 a copy and sell on Steam forever and even then I doubt it. 

A franchise like Pikmin (Pikmin!) is wiping the floor with a mainline Final Fantasy in Japan, lol, if you said that 20 years ago no one would believe it not even Miyamoto himself. Final Fantasy X sold 2.4 million copies in 2001 alone in Japan in 2001 ... Pikmin 1 sold like 300k in Japan. 

IMO if they want the franchise to grow Final Fantasy XVII is going to have to be PS5 (yes) but Switch 2 also and probably XBox and PC also. You cannot ignore so many platforms in this day and age, Square-Enix needs to wake up and smell it's not 1999 anymore. Britney Spears isn't no.1 on the pop charts and the kid from the Sixth Sense like 35 now, lol, Playstation is a big part of the gaming world still yes but you can't just wholesale look off all other sectors of the market and also pretend you are a big ticket 3rd party blockbuster release.