So Final Fantasy XIII has been released in Japan to pretty good sales, though not as high as some expected.  And now the final Dragon Quest remake for DS is coming, and expected to do yet another million in sales or more just like its predecessors.  But this brings up a dilemma for SquareEnix.  Final Fantasy XIII has been hyped and marketed for nearly 5 years, yet its barely surpassing the sales of remakes for NES and SNES titles on the DS, which hardly needs any hype or marketing.  In fact, compared to Final Fantasy XIII, which relies on tons of expensive CGI and nationwide ad campaigns including billboards, busses and promotional stunts at live events extended almost over 2 years back, Dragon Quest VI only recently put out another rather cheap and cheesy commercial in Japan.  Yet its still guaranteed to selll over a million or more.

So this is where the problems set in.  Its obvious that, at least in Japan, SquareEnix can make way more money simply by releasing a Dragon Quest title than a Final Fantasy title.  So why do they work so hard and spend so much money on development and marketing of titles like Final Fantasy XIII when they do not produce as big of a profit as other games?  Arguments can be made that Dragon Quest is more popular in Japan and FFXIII is selling less because its on the PS3.  But if you look over the history of the two series, this has been how they have been heading.  Dragon Quest has always been rising in sales, while Final Fantasy has been falling in sales after Final Fantasy VII.  Yet every subsequent title, they seem to put more time, money and advertising into their major Final Fantasy title and get less bang for their buck.  At least from the Japanese market.

The only thing this leads me to conclude is that SquareEnix is trying to keep Final Fantasy alive by force.  A major marketing blitz and 'bigger and better' set of graphics and cutscenes every time.  But in the end, is this really going to help?  Are they betting on the wrong horse?  Are the American sales really going to make up the difference for FFXIII what a second Dragon Quest game couldn't do in half the time and 1/10 the development cost?  I guess only time will tell, but as Wada said a while ago, FFXIII is really going to make or break his company.  And while I don't think they'll go under if FFXIII doesn't sell 5 million in America...I do think they're going to have a completely new outlook on how they make games in the future.  Considering their strongest fanbase has always been the Japanese market, betting everything on the western sales is not exactly a good strategy in my opinion.

I'm in love with Dragon Quest after playing DQ5

But lets face it Final Fantasy is just HUGE here in the west.

FF has fallen in sales since FF7 in Japan, but in the west its beena very strong franchise still.

With FFXIII they have obviously tried to add things to it that can make it sell to many more people, if that pays off you could see even bigger sales than we are expecting.

If not the game will sell huge anyway.

Wada also says his company wants to get most of their money from the west as they head into the future, if thats the future he see's he should try to make both the franchises more strong here.

But your question is rather weird TBH as both those franchises ARE their future

its like asking:

Handhelds or Home Consoles What will be nintendo's future?

FFXIII will be enormous in the States, and in Europe as well.

good for you darth. That's all it matters!

Onto some other points you make.

How is "FFXIII barely surpassing the sales of remakes for NES and SNES titles on the DS"

I advice you to re-check the Japan sales for the remakes of Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest

And FFXIII will not "make or break" their company when its probably already close to or has made a profit for them.

At some points you sound like its financial failure for them

Well, my question was more like, SquareEnix isn't really trying to improve both series at once.  Mostly they seem to just be trying to push Final Fantasy, while riding the Dragon Quest gravy train in Japan.  But while Final Fantasy keeps giving them mixed results even after intense marketing and a plethora of titles, Dragon Quest keeps gaining momentum and more sales.  It makes you start to wonder if they're backing the wrong series.  Especially when Dragon Quest can do so well with limited marketing and only in one region.  What would happen if SquareEnix put even half of their efforts they put into Final Fantasy into marketing Dragon Quest in the west.  They might, perish the thought, have two successful RPG series going instead of just one (not counting Kingdom Hearts).

darthdevidem01 said: Onto some other points you make. How is "FFXIII barely surpassing the sales of remakes for NES and SNES titles on the DS" I advice you to re-check the Japan sales for the remakes of Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest And FFXIII will not "make or break" their company when its probably already close to or has made a profit for them. At some points you sound like its financial failure for them

Japanese Sales:

Dragon Quest IV DS - 1.20m

Dragon Quest V DS - 1.23m

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - 1.49m

Final Fantasy XIII -1.87m

Dragon Quest IX - 4.19m

I'd say 500,000 units is respectable, but not blowing Dragon Quest out of the water.  And considering some of them are remakes and FFXIII is one of the two 'most wanted' games in Japan....

I have a theory.

Why can't S-E focus on both series, since both series are major selling franchises for S-E?

Seriously, are we now down to FF vs DQ?

That's what I'm saying.  I don't want Final Fantasy to die...I want it to thrive.  I actually think it would do BETTER if SquareEnix focused on other series as well.  Would Mario be doing good right now if all Nintendo did was focus on and market Mario games?  No, they'd be over-saturated, go down in popularity and their other games would suffer.

I know, but this is how this thread will go down, because it's not the first one that I've seen. 

S-E should focus more on other series, that's true, for years i've been wanting them to go to the good old days of both Squaresoft and Enix, but in the end, it's up to both the shareholders and Wada's decisions. FF and DQ are the biggest cash cows of S-E, KH has the potential to be amongst them as well. In my opinion, if they have continued with both the Chrono and Terranigma series, those two could have had the same impact in the long run. 

Kenryoku_Maxis said: darthdevidem01 said: I'm in love with Dragon Quest after playing DQ5 But lets face it Final Fantasy is just HUGE here in the west. FF has fallen in sales since FF7 in Japan, but in the west its beena very strong franchise still. With FFXIII they have obviously tried to add things to it that can make it sell to many more people, if that pays off you could see even bigger sales than we are expecting. If not the game will sell huge anyway. Wada also says his company wants to get most of their money from the west as they head into the future, if thats the future he see's he should try to make both the franchises more strong here. But your question is rather weird TBH as both those franchises ARE their future its like asking: Handhelds or Home Consoles What will be nintendo's future? Well, my question was more like, SquareEnix isn't really trying to improve both series at once.  Mostly they seem to just be trying to push Final Fantasy, while riding the Dragon Quest gravy train in Japan.  But while Final Fantasy keeps giving them mixed results even after intense marketing and a plethora of titles, Dragon Quest keeps gaining momentum and more sales.  It makes you start to wonder if they're backing the wrong series.  Especially when Dragon Quest can do so well with limited marketing and only in one region.  What would happen if SquareEnix put even half of their efforts they put into Final Fantasy into marketing Dragon Quest in the west.  They might, perish the thought, have two successful RPG series going instead of just one (not counting Kingdom Hearts). darthdevidem01 said: Onto some other points you make. How is "FFXIII barely surpassing the sales of remakes for NES and SNES titles on the DS" I advice you to re-check the Japan sales for the remakes of Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest And FFXIII will not "make or break" their company when its probably already close to or has made a profit for them. At some points you sound like its financial failure for them Japanese Sales: Dragon Quest IV DS - 1.20m Dragon Quest V DS - 1.23m Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - 1.49m Final Fantasy XIII -1.87m Dragon Quest IX - 4.19m I'd say 500,000 units is respectable, but not blowing Dragon Quest out of the water.  And considering some of them are remakes and FFXIII is one of the two 'most wanted' games in Japan....

how do you quote twice in one post?!

____

anyway on the first reply:

But they are now, nintendo will market DQ9. With DQ9 they probably aim to get a HUGE base for DQ thanks to nintendo's fantastic marketing.

Ten DQ10 can ride that wave and can be even more successful. They are planning to do that now I think.

Besides after They merged, only 1 main dragon quest game was actually released, DQ9 will be the test in terms of the western market.

On the second reply:

FFXIII isn't "barely" over them, 500K in japan isn't barely, that was my only problem with what you said, besides the FF4 remakes is at around 700K & the FF3 one around a million.

With an xbox 360 release & "the best" version expect FF13 to crawl to what FFx-2 did which according to this site is around 2.4 Million.