Well JRPG's on consoles WILL founder quite frankly.

for a JRPG fanbase to develop on Home consoles you need the BIG JRPG franchise to release on them.

The effect of FF13 flopping would be as bad as the next COD/HALO flopping......they would lead to a loss in fanbase of the FPs genre.

ok first of all NIS America made Disgaea series not Atlus. Also to say Tales of series is on the rise is just ridiculous, have u seen the sales for TOV on 360?? it bombed big time. and dont go and blame it on the platform either b/c if that were true, then y arent we getting a localization of the PS3 version????

and to go back to ur first part on DQIX. uhhh you do realize that was released on a handheld right?? a platfrom that is doing incredibly well in Japan(and worldwide for that matter) with a much huger install base. It really should be no surprise that DQIX will outsell FFXIII(in Japan).

now on a personal note if the series is on the decline then maybe they should slow down on FF and release something new or better yet revive some old franchises that should have continued to this day(ex. Chrono series, Xenogears, etc). But for me SE has lost its standing as one oif the best RPG developers. Atlus now sits on that throne with there fantastic Persona series which is getting stronger with each new release of the series. Sure it may still seem niche right now, but if they keep at it and continue to improve the series as time goes on, they may very well replace FF as the *JRPG flagship franchise* only time will tell.

I know this is a novel concept.

But not much at all would happen. "shrug"

Square Enix has enough legs to keep running even if FF13 was the most horrible piece of crap ever made. Game sales are game sales, and the game will sell millions in Japan alone. A company like Squaresoft has several game franchises right now making money for them. Yes, Final Fantasy is a name that you'd prefer not to be tarnished, but even if it was, all they'd to do is make "FFVersus13" great, or make sure the next installment is of a much higher caliber.

Plus you have to realize the Japanese market. Put the words "Dragon Quest" or "Final Fantasy" on a cardboard box outside a game store and it will sell millions without the gameplay ever being investigated. Kind of like Halo or Gears of War in America.

I think JRPGs are becoming a niche market in gaming.

FFXIII will inevitably sell a few million but I think that going forward companies will put less money into JRPG innovation and focus more on MMO RPGs.

It is diappointing to watch and be a part of, but I am finding it harder and harder to justify the time it requires to play something like a JRPG straight through while there are so many other great games that take 1/4 the time commitment to play and are including features that made JRPGs so interesting to begin with (Attention to detail, strong story, levelling up, etc.).

@ Kenryoku_Maxis - You are one of the people who I think is greatly under-estimating the power of Final Fantasy, especially in Japan.

The last main Final Fantasy installment managed to pull in 4 million ww easily, even though it is one that many people had problems with. I also checked the numbers for a couple of spin-off:

Crisis Core is almost at 2.5 million.
FFIV on DS has done 1 mill.
FFIII on DS has done 2.3 mill.
Dissidia is already at 1.3 and could possibly reach 1.7-8 this holiday(???)

Keeping in consideration that both PSP and DS have been hacked to bits, with PSP software sales guaranteed to have been affected, I'd say those numbers are decent for lower budget re-makes and spin-offs. Mind you, FFX-2 did WAAAAY better than any of these, but I'm sure you can think of why that is.

You are definitely onto a point: Final Fantasy spin-offs, as well as main games in the series, have not recently done as amazing as they could have (or was projected). However, you and I look at this entire thing differently. I think FFXIII has several things going for it:

- Square made a great decision to make FFXIII multiplat. That move alone has generated a tremendous amount of buzz around the game. It will bring many Western players into Final Fantasy that previously would not have even thought about the game.
- Having played the game, I can tell you it is FUCKING AMAZING!!! This ain't no joke. comparing to games like Disgaea and Tales would be lol worthy. It's meta score will reflect this. In turn, universal critical acclaim will help its sales even further.
- The game is releasing just 1 week before christmas (in Japan) and a mere two or three months after a $100 PS3 price-cut and the introduction of the slim line. An amazing time to release a game that has been in development for this long.

I guess we will have to wait and see. This generation started with me waiting for 3 sequels: MGS, GTA and Final Fantasy. None have let me down so far. I have a lot of faith in FFXIII. Whether it is the groundbreaking sales monster that some are predicting, or the flop that this thread is hypothesizing, it is a first day buy for me; the #1 game I have been waiting for this entire generation. And it will be ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE!!!

BEST POST EVER!

FF13 FTW!!!!!!

This game is so hyped for me....!!!!!!

Almost as much as my MGS4 hype back in 2008!

@OP:
Very bad, maybe fatal for S-E.
Bad for JRPG fans, particularly the western ones.
Bad for Sony in the short term, maybe good in the long term (freeing it from any remaining dependency on S-E).
Bad for MS that heavily relied on removing Sony FF exclusivity to become more appealing for JRPG lovers.
Good for Nintendo, as S-E could release a burst of Wii titles in an extreme attempt to save itself.

^^^ it's won't be fatal for SE 'cause "Batman" have saved SE already.

Square-Enix will make something new? We won't have to wait half a life for a new game?

Yes, SE did make a good decision in having FFXIII going multiplatform, though it was most likely a decision that came from necessity as they realized the game wouldn't sell up to expectations simply on the PS3 alone.  Heck, if they could port the game to the Wii and DS to increase their userbase they would do that too, but obviously they can't.  They chose the 'HD' platform and now they have to stick with it.  This is also one of the reasons that might become a major factor in the game selling less than past major FF games.

And its pretty obvious you are a big fan of the game.  But as I said before, I wasn't comparing FF to tales or Disgaea.  I was mearly pointing out that Final Fantasy is losing sales because there's more RPG competition out there now adays and Square(Enix) isn't the #1 RPG maker in everyones eyes anymore.  In other words, when you ask some people what their favorite RPG franchise is, they don't automatically default to 'Final Fantasy'.  Some people are starting to choose other games over a Final Fantasy game in the store.  And yes, they might even do this with FFXIII.