But the game ratings don't reflect that:/

42k launch during holiday season is saving a game??

One has to wonder what the sales would be like if someone informed Square Enix that in order for a game to benefit from the Christmas holiday boost it has to be released BEFORE Christmas so it can be given as a gift. While I'm not certain what the ideal date to release a game to get the best boost from holiday sales, it is certainly at least a couple of weeks before Christmas; and releasing a game on boxing day seems moronic being that few people (myself included) are going to buy a game on boxing day if they received a game (or more) for Christmas.

Edit: Seriously, what kind of moron releases a game on boxing day unless they want it to have poor sales?

it's not a normal FF:CC game and it was released in the holidays. We'll have to wait to see the legs, it's a fairly encouraging first week. It means it won't bomb in NA, very difficult to predict LTD sales at this point though.

Release date is just weird.

Well as you say Soriku, after all that has happened these 45k are at least something. For the effort this game actually was, it should at least go gold in America though, and that's still a long way to go. My hope is now that it is able to outdo it's first day sales in the first real week, selling somewhere in the 50k to 100k range. I doubt it will do this though.

Europe's sales on the other hand I'm still positive about, I mean there it releases in february which is usually a good timeframe, and maybe some european reviews will be better as well.