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Forums - Sony Discussion - FF7 Rebirth Sales Aren't Bad - PlayStation Partner Awards

method114 on 06 December 2024
G2ThaUNiT said:
Darashiva said:

I don't think the idea was ever that the sales were necessarily bad, just disappointing from S-E's point of view. Admittedly they are quite notorious for always being disappointed in the sales of their games, so I feel like it's at least partially because they have vastly unrealistic expectations for almost all their games.

Considering FF used to sell upwards of 10 million copies with each release practically routinely starting with FF7, and FF being one of the most storied and best-selling franchises in all of gaming, SE should absolutely be having higher than average expectations compared to their other games. It's true they've historically had unrealistic expectations, but FF should always be the exception.

None of their other games get the budget the way FF does. Therefore, each release should be paying off the most for them. Selling 3-4 million units or wherever Rebirth is currently just isn't going to cut it considering the amount of investment in development and marketing they put into these titles.

Well then they need to adjust their expectations and dial it back. Cut the marketing IMO. I looked up their sales and I wouldn't say they were hitting upwards of 10mil routinely. It seems like they were doing it about half the time.



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BasilZero on 06 December 2024

It didnt meet expectations which wasnt a surprise due to how different the game is compared to how the older FF games were.



G2ThaUNiT on 06 December 2024
method114 said:
G2ThaUNiT said:

Considering FF used to sell upwards of 10 million copies with each release practically routinely starting with FF7, and FF being one of the most storied and best-selling franchises in all of gaming, SE should absolutely be having higher than average expectations compared to their other games. It's true they've historically had unrealistic expectations, but FF should always be the exception.

None of their other games get the budget the way FF does. Therefore, each release should be paying off the most for them. Selling 3-4 million units or wherever Rebirth is currently just isn't going to cut it considering the amount of investment in development and marketing they put into these titles.

Well then they need to adjust their expectations and dial it back. Cut the marketing IMO. I looked up their sales and I wouldn't say they were hitting upwards of 10mil routinely. It seems like they were doing it about half the time.

Right……just lower their expectations when they’ve spent a crap ton of money on a new FF lol. But cutting down in some areas such as marketing would certainly be a good place to start. I saw a LOT of marketing for Rebirth and even seen how batshit crazy they go in marketing in Japan. FF7 had a notorious development and marketing budget of $80 million. Which is an absolutely absurd number for the late 90s. I can’t imagine what that numbers looks like these days. But like my point was, they’re spending a lot of money, so they expect a lot in return when it comes to this franchise. 

When I said routinely, several reached 10 million whereas the others hovered around 7-8 million.



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V-r0cK on 06 December 2024

Square just has the highest expectation for their Final Fantasy games



lansingone on 06 December 2024

Given the poor sales of FF16 on PC, I don't know how much better the picture would be if it was on other platforms. I think their problem is just that FF in general has a harder time standing out and going viral with each release.



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Kyuu on 06 December 2024
G2ThaUNiT said:
method114 said:

Well then they need to adjust their expectations and dial it back. Cut the marketing IMO. I looked up their sales and I wouldn't say they were hitting upwards of 10mil routinely. It seems like they were doing it about half the time.

Right……just lower their expectations when they’ve spent a crap ton of money on a new FF lol. But cutting down in some areas such as marketing would certainly be a good place to start. I saw a LOT of marketing for Rebirth and even seen how batshit crazy they go in marketing in Japan. FF7 had a notorious development and marketing budget of $80 million. Which is an absolutely absurd number for the late 90s. I can’t imagine what that numbers looks like these days. But like my point was, they’re spending a lot of money, so they expect a lot in return when it comes to this franchise. 

When I said routinely, several reached 10 million whereas the others hovered around 7-8 million.

Which parts reached 10 million? As far as I'm aware, it's just FF7 and 15.

FF7 Remake was the series's 2nd best selling game in the US around the time it released on PC (I don't remember if it was by revenue or copies sold. But good feat considering the room for growth via Switch 2 and Xbox versions). FFX's last confirmed number was 8.5 million. The "sub-series", including FFX-2 and remasters, passed 20 million in 2022.

FF1-6, 9, 7 Rebirth (as indicated so far), and 16 are all sub 6 million sellers. 8 and 13 sold over 8 and 7 million respectively.

Funny how the "unpopular" Final Fantasy games are actually among the best sellers. A similar-ish story to Resident Evil with 5 and 6 being at the top for a while (I enjoyed 5 but 6 was terrible lol).



JWeinCom on 06 December 2024

That's nice and all, but it really doesn't tell you much about how good or bad the sales are. Wish by Disney made about 250 million dollars at the box office and was considered a huge flop. The best Christmas Pageant Ever made about 30 million and is considered a big success. We would need to know more about the budget, marketing, etc.



Soundwave on 07 December 2024
G2ThaUNiT said:
Darashiva said:

I don't think the idea was ever that the sales were necessarily bad, just disappointing from S-E's point of view. Admittedly they are quite notorious for always being disappointed in the sales of their games, so I feel like it's at least partially because they have vastly unrealistic expectations for almost all their games.

Considering FF used to sell upwards of 10 million copies with each release practically routinely starting with FF7, and FF being one of the most storied and best-selling franchises in all of gaming, SE should absolutely be having higher than average expectations compared to their other games. It's true they've historically had unrealistic expectations, but FF should always be the exception.

None of their other games get the budget the way FF does. Therefore, each release should be paying off the most for them. Selling 3-4 million units or wherever Rebirth is currently just isn't going to cut it considering the amount of investment in development and marketing they put into these titles.

3-4 million honestly is pretty terrible for any large budget game. 3-4 million is like what low budget indies that break out and C-tier Nintendo franchises sell, FF7 Rebirth is an epic remake of one of the most beloved video games of all time, it would be like a mainline Star Wars movie only doing $200 million in global box office or something. 



LGBTDBZBBQ on 07 December 2024

Selling ~3.5 million units with budgets over $200m is a bad ROI for Square Enix. Big games like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Souls game, and Dragon Ball are selling over 10 million units per game, and yet Final Fantasy with similar or higher budgets than those titles failed to reach that milestone.

Elden Rings - 25m
MHWorld - 20.9m
MHRise - 16m
Resident Evil 2 Remake - 14.5m
Resident Evil 7 - 14m
Resident Evil 8 - 10.5m
Xenoverse 2 - 10m
DB Fighters Z - 10m
Sekiro - 10m

Recent games
DBZ Sparking Zero - 3m - launch day (2nd biggest launch for Bandai namco only below Elden Rings will pass 10 million mark less than a year)
Resident Evil 4 Remake - 8m (fastest-selling Resident Evil game)
Monster Hunter Wild - ?? ( Going to be massive as well, probably 6-8 million units launch numbers)



Pemalite on 07 December 2024

I think to much focus is placed on the "here and now" sales of games.

Final Fantasy is one of those titles that get repackaged/enhanced/remastered/remade/re-released every single console generation for every platform known to man.

I mean... We have the Final Fantasy pixel remaster on every platform and most of those games released decades ago and already had re-releases on other platforms.

Plus... Being platform exclusive doesn't help Square. Not this day and age, needs an Xbox and Switch release. (Or Switch 2.0 release)



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